As someone who is not religious at all, I have been pleasantly surprised by the caliber of films formally billed as faith-based in 2024. This is a well-crafted, largely accurate retelling of a real story which is human-centered first, systemic second and keeps prayer, God's will, etc. At the margins, and it is all the stronger for it.
In fact, while religion often presents larger-than-life figures, it appears that the largest deviation from reality was in giving Sharon (the friendly not-quite-neighbour driving the plot with her laser-focused commitment on keeping the deathly ill Michelle alive until her transplant) a struggle with alcoholism she appears not to have had in real life - perhaps deciding she would come across as too much of an angel otherwise. The other possibility is that making her more flawed than she was made Michelle's father stubborn reluctance about accepting aid seem a bit less ungrateful - a dynamic also seen in the broadly comparable Unsung Hero that year.
In all, it's hard not to stunned by the sheer range of obstacles standing in the way of Michelle's survival - both systemic and natural. After the family and their helper angels in town push through the creeping bills in one way or another again, again and AGAIN, the blizzard at the end is the kind of complication you would dismiss in a fictional script as too convenient, yet it absolutely happened, and the scenes caused by it are not just alternately tense and inspiring, but also remarkably well-directed for a "true story" film.
Admittedly, the other way in which the blizzard is convenient is that it allows for a great conclusion without grappling with the elephant in the room of the U. S. healthcare system. In the richest country in the world, a family maybe shouldn't need to rely on a chance encounter with "angel" who had nothing else to devote her life to avoid literal destitution while waiting for their daughter's transplant. In the film, that thought hangs in the air throughout - too fragile for the filmmakers to touch, since they would rather have us see it as divine providence.
As it is, this is a story of a town which came together and made a real effort to save one of their own - and then apparently took a step back and allowed the same thing to keep happening to other people in their country in the 30 years since. Out of sight, out of mind. It would have been more courageous to make that subtext into text - but even now, this point is hard to miss, so I still feel comfortable recommending this film with minimal reservations.
P. S. When it comes to the topic of organ donation, one could pose even more uncomfortable questions about for-profit transplants - a practice considered so ethically fraught it is apparently only legal in the Islamic Republic of Iran, where it by turns encourages exploitation yet also largely eliminates the grief of losing a family member to an organ donation waiting list. Since Michelle was a young child at the time, such an option would not have been available even under the Iranian system, so I don't fault the film for not mentioning it.
