The Girl Who Believes in Miracles
| The Girl Who Believes in Miracles | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Richard Correll |
| Starring | Kevin Sorbo, Peter Coyote, Austyn Johnson, Mira Sorvino |
| Distributed by | Atlas Distribution USA |
| Release date(s) | 2021 |
| Running time | 1 hour 40 minutes |
| Country | U.S.A. |
| Language | English |
The Girl Who Believes in Miracles is a 2021 Christian film produced and directed by Richard Correll. Based on the 2015 book The Mustard Seed, the movie stars Kevin Sorbo, along with Academy Award winning actress Mira Sorvino and Emmy Award winning actor Peter Coyote, and was released on Good Friday weekend 2021. It is the film executive producer debut of Laurence Jaffe, making his first film at age 98.[1]
Contents
Plot
After hearing her pastor preach a sermon on The Parable of the Mustard Seed, Sara Hopkins decides to put her faith into action. Though her first prayer isn't successful (her brother Danny's soccer team loses due in large part to the thuggish actions of Alvie Bronner from the other team), while visiting a lake near her grandfather Sam's house, Sara spots a dead bird and begins to pray again. This time, she claims to see an apparition of Jesus walking across the lake (but neither Danny nor his girlfriend Cindy see anything), whereupon the bird comes back to life. That night she tells her mom of the day's events, but then makes a troubling statement: Sara says that Jesus told her that she would soon go to Heaven. When her father spots a drawing that Sara made of what she saw, the parents are troubled that Sara may have had a premonition of her impending death, made worse by a sudden bout of sweats and nausea.
The story of the bird makes the rounds and results in Sara being teased, and Bronner tries to pick a fight with Danny, but when his dog is hit and killed, Sara prays for the dog, which comes back to life. She then gives her friend Mark (who witnessed the events with the dog) a drawing of him dunking a basketball; Mark is a paraplegic as a result of being hit by a car. He asks her to pray for him; the next morning he is able to move his toes, and ultimately to walk (to the surprise of the doctor, who doesn't believe in a loving God as a result of losing his own son years earlier). But each healing makes Sara weaker; to make things worse Mark's miracle is witnessed by a local news reporter who turns Sara into a local celebrity.
Sara then shows her parents yet another drawing, this time of a young girl on a horse; what she doesn't know is that the girl is another local resident, Theresa, who is terminally ill with cancer. Theresa's mother and uncle (a Catholic priest) decide that Theresa's only hope is to see if Sara can heal her. They visit Sara's house, along with several other children; Sara's dad tries to make the crowd leave but Sara appears and instantly goes to Theresa and prays for her. As Sara then prays for a blind girl and a wheelchair-bound boy (both of whom are healed), Theresa notices the same apparition of Jesus whenever Sara prays.
But the healings take their toll on Sara: she passes out and is rushed to the doctor. A battery of tests later confirms that Sara has an inoperable brain tumor (which the doctor thinks may be causing her sightings; he also insists the healings are a placebo effect). Sara is not afraid to die and wants to go to the lake one last time (which her mother refuses due to her illness), but the news greatly affects Sam, who has never had any real interest in spiritual matters. He goes to the lake and (recognizing that he has no right to insist on anything from God due to his own wicked life) begs God not to take Sara.
Sam then comes up with an audacious plan: he plans to take Sara to the lake regardless of what her parents think. He pulls it off with the aid of Danny, Cindy, the pastor, and Mark and Theresa (and their mothers) despite a violent storm and being chased by the police (and Sara's parents along with the news reporter crews); they also receive surprising aid from Bronner (who said he owed Sara for her healing his dog). All the parties make it to the lake, where they see the apparition, then they see Sara's spirit walking across the lake to meet Jesus, implying that she has gone to Heaven just as she told her mother earlier that week.
Sara's body is brought home, where a candlelight vigil begins outside. Danny and Cindy notice that Sara made a drawing of her meeting Jesus, which they think is her final drawing until they spot yet another one, this time of Sara returning from Heaven. Danny believes that Sara isn't going to remain dead; doing what Sara did many times before (though discouraged by the adults), Danny rushes to Sara's body and pleads with God not to take her. Suddenly Sara wakes up, and tells her mom that she asked Jesus if she could come back so her mom wouldn't be sad. Then meeting the people outside, she announces that she no longer has the miracle ability she once had, but if everyone had faith and prayed, they could make their community a better place.
Box Office
The movie made $546,000 in its first weekend showing (April 2-5) in 640 theaters (ranking #6 among all releases that weekend, remarkable given the small number of theaters showing the film, and also that spring is usually a slow period for major releases, though it may also have benefitted from traffic coming to see the mega-release Godzilla v. Kong); it was the highest-ranked release by a non-major studio.[2] The following week it appeared in 900 theaters and after that it broke the 1,000 theater mark (1,012, its widest release). At the end of its run on June 19, 2021, it made just over $3.16 million overall[3] whereupon it was released to streaming services.
The movie critic site Rotten Tomatoes has not given it any official "tomatometer" rating: of the four "professional" reviewers three criticize it (due to its faith-based content) while one (a faith-based reviewer) holds a positive review, but proving again the best of the public the audience rating has maintained a 90% plus average.[4]
