Miracles From Heaven

You can see the marketing meeting, the Venn Diagram on the wall. Disease Of The Week movies (Lorenzo's Oil, Extraordinary Measures) in one set, Religious Faith (Heaven Is For Real) in the other with the union the audience who love to be 'in bits'. The word comes through to director Patricia Riggen (The 33): Miracles From Heaven is a go project.

Set in a Texan community where BBQs and pickup trucks and pony rides and Country Rock are the norm, Christy Beam (Garner) leads a happy life with vet hubby Kevin (Henderson) and their three daughters. But then middle daughter Anna (Rogers) complains of stomach problems and after treating her for lactose intolerance and acid reflux they finally get the terrible news: Anna has an incurable intestinal disease and her only hope is getting in to see an elusive and expensive Boston doctor (Eugenio Derbez)…

Adapted from Christy Beams's based-on-true-events novel, Randy Brown's (Trouble With The Curve) screenplay initially looks like it’s going to go up against the Super Faith of the community: the Beams have a giggle at another family who call Disneyland the work of Satan and, later, three Super Faithers approach Christy with the disgusting idea that Anna isn't getting better because she doesn't have enough faith. Christy does indeed go through the expected sequence where her faith is tested - putting it to Nice Pastor (John Carroll Lynch) why would a loving God put a child through so much pain? – but Brown's attempts to tackle all this is cosmetic. The movie isn't about whether or not Anna will get better (Riggen isn't really interested in her as a character) but will Christy keep her faith and there's something off about that. By the end God Is Great and these doctors… what do they know anyway?

Garner at first has all the emotional intensity of a sock puppet regaling a sad fairy tale but she grows into the role, balancing raw anger and crippling fear and cruel hope. She's doing the job of two – she's both Nolte and Sarandon in Lorenzo's, and Fraser and Russell in Measures - while unshakeable Kevin is back home with his relaxed it'll-all-come-out-in-the-wash belief. What job Queen Latifah is employed to do as the smiley waitress offering a personal guided tour of Boston as Anna and Christy wait to see the specialist is less clear. Comic relief probably.

If Miracles… is unashamedly after emotional manipulation and hopefully fill a few more pews, it's more successful with the former. One would have to have a rotten heart not to be moved when Anna, facing another night of terrible pain, turns to her mother: "I want to die. I'm sorry, I don't want you to be sad… but I just want it to be over." Blub. The 'in bits' crowd will certainly be looking for fragments of themselves under the seats in front.

Two hours is a stretch when the title gives away the ending, and it preaches to the choir (or Christian Rock band in this instance), but when it wants to tug those heartstrings it does so.