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Image / Living / Culture

The Miracle Club: Predictable but feel-good all the same


By Sarah Finnan
13th Oct 2023

TMC_20-05-22_0336.ARW

The Miracle Club: Predictable but feel-good all the same

Set in Ireland and with a cast that includes Laura Linney, Kathy Bates, and Dame Maggie Smith, The Miracle Club has lots going for it... even if it is a bit predictable.

Directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan and starring Laura Linney, Kathy Bates, Dame Maggie Smith and Irish newcomer Agnes O’Casey, The Miracle Club is a 2023 comedy-drama film, that tells the story of a group of women who go on a pilgrimage to Lourdes – each in desperate need of their own personal miracle. 

As per the official synopsis:

“Close friends Lily (Smith), Eileen (Bates), and Dolly (O’Casey) win the trip of a lifetime – a pilgrimage to Lourdes. With each woman desperately in need of a personal miracle, the trip seems like an answer to all their prayers. But when they are joined by Chrissie (Linney), returning to Dublin after decades in America, deep wounds from the past are re-opened and bitter truths exposed. As they confront one another and embrace their shared past, the group reckon with revelations that will change them forever.”

Shot on location in Ireland – between Dublin, and Wicklow as well as at the Ardmore Film Factory where a number of iconic locations were recreated (including the world-famous Grotto at Lourdes), it’s a heartfelt story of friendship, forgiveness and faith… even if it is a bit twee at times.

Almost 20 years in the works, you might say that the real miracle is that this film was ever made at all. Rumour has it that Maggie Smith went up to Kathy Bates at the Oscars and asked her “Are we ever making this effing movie?!” “I think it was just trying to get the script right and finish the casting,” says director Thaddeus O’Sullivan of the holdup. 

“I was first approached in 2006 by HBO who wanted to make it and for various reasons, it fell through at that time. I did a bit of work on it, I wasn’t on it for very long and then it fell through. I forgot about it and it appeared again three years ago… Maggie Smith was always involved so I think she kept the whole thing going,” he smiles.

How does one go about getting such a stellar cast on board? According to O’Sullivan, writer Jimmy Smallhorne “put in a lot of legwork”. “[He] got Maggie interested, through her agent I guess. That sort of started things. Jumping forward to my involvement much later, we got a draft which we sent to Laura Linney and she liked it. She really liked her character and of course, she wanted to work with Maggie. They’d become good friends, they had both done one-woman shows in recent years and they’d talked to each other quite a lot about doing that and got to know each other quite well. They were really interested to get back together again.” 

And so an all-star ensemble of Hollywood royalty was drawn together… however, casting English and American actors to play Irish characters was “tough” in O’Sullivan’s words. “They put a massive amount of work into it, all the three actors. Laura, we decided, didn’t need to play an Irish accent because she had rejected Ireland so totally that it was a cultural thing with her as well, to draw the line and leave Ireland behind… Kathy Bates was wonderful, she just did so much work. But they all had an instinct for the characters. They all knew that they were cast so there were never any issues about ‘where’s the character going’ or any of that, it was just head down and they did the work. They brought a massive amount to the set, all of them.” 

While Bates’ accent needs work, Smith’s is, unsurprisingly, pitch-perfect and she’s electric as Lily, a woman burdened by deep-seated guilt from her past. A line she says – “there’s always hope, even when you don’t really believe” – captures the essence of what the film is about. Religion is ever-present, but there is also a heavy dose of scepticism throughout.I think her reflection on her relationship with religion at that point, thinking about her old friend Maureen and making her confession so to speak, it’s lovely,” says O’Sullivan. “She was sceptical but so where’s the hope then? Do you need religion to have hope? I think [her] confession is a great release for her in the story and she therefore feels that there is hope. She’s thinking about death in the bath and she’s wondering, where she’s going to end up. She doesn’t say heaven, she doesn’t say hell, she doesn’t abstract it; she’s just thinking about the end and I guess having a few hopeful years left.”

While the characters are loosely based on Smallhorne’s own mother and family, in the particular is contained the universal, as James Joyce would say. It was definitely reminiscent of his own upbringing, agrees O’Sullivan. “We had my family, my cousins and so on, at the premiere last week and they were saying that they recognise themselves in it. Yes, it’s inspired by Jimmy’s family but it is a type, I guess. A Dublin type. My cousins were saying, ‘It’s just like Auntie so and so’, and just like my mother too.”

The menfolk, led by Stephen Rea, provide light comic relief, though their inability – or perhaps, refusal is a better word – to get by without the women of the house, is a reminder of the times. Set in 1678/68, theirs was a world where men reigned supreme. “All the women on my street were heroic, charismatic, riveting characters. They had resilience in spite of the hardship and they had faith,” recalls Smallhorne.  

I’ll be honest; The Miracle Club is very predictable. Much like a romcom, you know what you’re getting fairly early on – it’s pretty clear how the plot is going to pan out and you can be guaranteed that every character has their storyline tied up in a nice little bow by the end of it. It’s not necessarily a bad movie though – Kathy Bates’ questionable Irish accent aside. 

The sweeping shots of Dublin Bay (a non-negotiable for O’Sullivan), the period clothing and lived-in homes, the incredible cast (Brenda Fricker voices Maureen, though she’s never seen on-screen) all lend themselves to film that would, understandably, pique your interest. Yes, it’s sentimental – almost to a fault – but it’s warm and familiar and worth sitting through for Maggie Smith’s performance alone. Though, isn’t everything!?

The Miracle Club opens in Irish cinemas nationwide on Friday, October 13.