Third Miracle

 

 

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Made by a Polish director Agnieszka Holland, whose work is always controversial and often not accepted well by the American critics, this is not your typical Hollywood movie. It will be appreciated by people who feel that not all the answers can be found on a therapist's couch and who don't mind deliberate ambiguity of her work, which is designed to raise important questions that may be different for different viewers. The answers we should find within ourselves.

Although it is definitely a "Catholic Movie" and the Catholic theme is presented honestly and impartially, the movie rises above just one particular religion (Agnieszka Holland wrote and directed an acclaimed holocaust movie "Europa, Europa" which was denied German Oscar Committee nomination under quite bizarre circumstances. It's available in German with English subtitles).

Those who panic each time they come across ideas that touch that extra dimension within themselves that some call faith or spirituality and others just live with without giving a name, will find this movie weird and annoying. And in fact, this is the first question this movie raises: why do we have this need for the spiritual? What is faith and how much or little of it one needs?

Do you have to take the miracles literally? Do you believe that everything that happens in "The Wizard of Oz" can actually happen?
Of course not, but it creates an appropriate setting for investigation of some fundamental questions.

Some of the questions: where is the line between good and evil and even more important: is there a line? Where does this saint-to-be fall on the spectrum between good and evil? But then there is an answer: it really doesn't matter whether she is good or not in our understanding, because "It's God who makes the saints, not us". This woman has some special connection, but why? Her miracles are almost worthless. "If you ask me, God wasted a miracle" says the mother of a saved girl who grew up to became a junkie and a prostitute. "God loves the sinner." Do we really understand what that means?

Another miracle happens during WWII. "What is the point of saving one family when millions, millions died?" asks one of the tribunal judges. Saved by the miracle are a gypsy girl, a Catholic priest and a wounded German soldier. Hmm...
The plot is deeper than that, but I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen the movie.

The WWII theme is extremely important and is a glue that holds it all together, though it takes only about 5 minutes of the whole film. Why is it so important? Is it because without evil there won't be good?

Ed Harris is outstanding as Father Shore. A complex character that will require a separate review. Frank Shore is a man who probably would have made a better cop than a priest (he was raised by his cop father after all). He didn't really choose to become a priest. God chose him. Oh, you really have to see Ed Harris in this role.

Anne Heche is colorful and very believable as the woman's daughter. Some reviewers complain about intimate scenes between Father Shore and Roxanne. But how else would you appreciate the totality of their sacrifice without almost physically experiencing the totality of their attraction. I can't even call what was between them love. It was some fatalistic attraction of two abandoned souls. All these scenes are done in good taste. They never consummated their relationship and I don't see what there is to be upset about. Absolutely beautiful scene: they dance on the grave of her mother with a bottle of vodka. You have to see this.

Another amazing scene in the beginning when the daughter watches with intense emotion the video of her mother happily playing with the kids at the orphanage. It's visibly painful for her because this is the same mother who had abandoned her as a teenager, causing a lot of pain and a sense of rejection. Frank Shore, on the other hand, sees the same scene with the eyes of a motherless boy. For him, this woman is love.

Is Roxanne the other side of her mother? Not a saint, not even a believer, she produces her own miracle, a miracle of a different kind. In fact, there are more than 3 miracles in this movie and anybody can argue which one is the third. I think the fact that there are film makers out there who ignore the Hollywood proven recipe for box office success and make movies that are different is a little miracle by itself.

What does it all mean? There are things that are better not understood. Like in a beautiful verse, you will find new meaning each time you read it.

Of course in the end the answer is: "God wastes no miracle". And though the movie has a "happy ending" it doesn't leave you with the sense of a compromise, but rather bewildered and astonished.

Armin Mueller-Stahl, who plays "the devil's advocate" during the tribunal hearings needs to be mentioned as an outstanding actor. But there are so many gems in this movie that it just needs to be seen.

Father Frank Shore became a priest after promising God that he would do so if his policeman father
survived a near fatal shooting. But he seems to have always been at least somewhat skeptical about the
whole deal. When we are introduced to him in the film he has gone well beyond simple skepticism
and is living in an inner city Chicago flophouse, openly doubting his calling. But the local bishop has
need of his services, however reluctant, because Frank serves as a postulator, investigating alleged
miracles and potential saints, and at the moment strong claims are being put forward for the
beatification of an immigrant woman named Helen O'Regan.

O'Regan has been dead for several years but on the day of her memorial service a young girl who she
had befriended entered the church covered in blood which had dripped from the eyes of a statue as she
prayed to or for Helen. The event would be remarkable enough in its own right, but even more
startling is the fact that it cured the child of lupus. Since that time parishioners have come to believe
that the statue, which performs similarly during rainstorms every November (the month of Helen's
death), has healing powers and that Helen was a saint.

Frank has earned a reputation as a debunker of such claims, and with it the nickname "The Miracle
Killer", but his most recent effort precipitated his downward spiral. In that case Frank himself felt
intimations of the divine and even witnessed a miraculous cure, but he ultimately disproved the virtue
of the cleric involved. His crisis of conscience resulted from the knowledge that he had destroyed
peoples faith in something tangible, even if extrareligious, in the service of a Church and a God that he
is not certain he truly believes in. Now he wants "God to show his face", in order that he may believe
that it has all been worthwhile. And so he heads off to St. Stanislaus with a doubting mind but an
open heart. Everything that he finds there gives him reason to believe in Helen O'Reagan.

This portion of the movie is very much a classic detective story, a kind of Catholic hard-boiled noir,
with Frank as the gumshoe. The main complication that Frank faces in this phase of the case is an
attraction to the daughter Helen pretty much abandoned when she entered the church. That daughter,
Roxanne (Ann Heche), sixteen at the time but now grown, is naturally resentful and baffled by the
notion that her mother might become just the fourth American saint. Given the conventions of
Hollywood this love interest is probably inevitable and it is handled as well as could possibly be
expected, but it would be a better film without it.

In the second half of the movie, which becomes a courtroom melodrama, Frank has to defend the case
for Helen's sainthood against an extremely hostile and Ameriphobic devil's advocate, an Archbishop
(played by Armin Mueller-Stahl) who is visiting from Rome. Frank's own wavering faith becomes an
issue in the hearing, but so too does the Archbishop's personal unwillingness to grant the possibility
that an uncultured American immigrant woman could be a vessel of God.

Director Agnieskia Holland is not quite at top form here, at least not at the peak level she reached in
Europa, Europa and The Secret Garden, but she never stoops to condescend to this material, which is
pretty unusual in the modern cinema. There are some characterizations that are a tad too hackneyed
and some of the shots at the Catholic Church are too easy, too cheap, to be taken seriously; but even
the villains, all clerics, of the piece ultimately prove to have more complex motivations than we first
believe. Meanwhile, there are some really fine set pieces, particularly the discussions between Frank
and his colleagues, where faith is taken seriously and discussed with passion, insight, and altogether
appropriate awe.

Now, for each of these essays I try to find all the links I can to other reviews that are available online.
In doing so for this movie I was first amused then angered by the frequency with which the following
sentiment cropped up : this is yet another film about a priest wrestling with his faith. Yet another?
Hold back the deluge!

This is not to say that the central dilemma here is unique; it is not. It treads some of the ground
covered by The Exorcist, which despite its reputation as a mere horror film is a compelling depiction
of a priest's struggle to believe, but it does so without all the special effects, profanity, and other
shockers and its particular concerns are very different. I guess it is also somewhat similar to Stigmata
which was unfortunately released at roughly the same time. But so what? If Silence of the Lambs
didn't exhaust the topic of serial killers and Porky's didn't obviate the need for inane scatological teen
comedies, a bare handful of films sure as Hell didn't dispose of the questions surrounding belief in
God. The winner of the Academy Award in 2000, which I think is when Third Miracle would have
been eligible, was American Beauty. Did we really need yet another look at the desperation of the
suburbs and the dysfunctioning family? The answer is : if the film is good, by all means, another look
is fine. But the same goes for The Third Miracle and the subjects it deals with.

I don't know; maybe the questions raised in the Third Miracle just resonate with me because I've
reached a certain age and temperament, but I find the problem of faith to be quite fascinating. How,
in an Age of Reason and of Skepticism, can we believe in a God who no longer chooses to reveal
himself to us through prophets, messiahs, and miracles? Personally, I find the intellectual case for
God to be compelling, but a miracle would sure close the deal. At any rate, if your mind is so closed
that you can not allow for the possibility of God or the miraculous, or if you think the serious
exploration of religious faith has become as ubiquitous as the car chase in recent movies, by all means,
skip this one. But if you appreciate great acting (Ed Harris is especially good) and beautiful film
making, and you're still curious about why we do or don't choose to believe in God, then you owe it to
yourself to watch The Third Miracle.

GRADE : B+

I am a Roman Catholic and I understand the whole, lengthy and deeply exhausting investigative process surrounding beatification and canonization. I also know that non Catholics and non Christians don't understand it and may even think that the Church arbitrarily elevates anyone it wants to Sainthoood. This film, "The Third Miracle", does a fairly good job exploring the canonization process in a feature film. Granted, times and themes have changed since "The Song Of Bernadette" won the Best Film Oscar in 1944 exploring the "Marian Miracle" theme, but it is reassuring that this type of screenplay still makes for a moving and haunting film. Sadly, the film did not get a lot of promotion or ballyoo even though it was marvelously produced, had high production values and featured superb performances by Ed Harris, Anne Heche and a host of other notable supportng players. Ed Harris is truly one of the screens most riveting actors and even his smaller screen parts are unforgettable for their realism, intensity and strength. Anne Heche is perfect as the wayward, doubting daughter especially in her meetings with Father Shore.

My only criticisms, and they are mild, involve the smoking, drinking clergy portrayed and their seeming love of socializing and the "good life". Also, the ending was too unexplained and it left you somewhat dangling as to how Roxanne acquired her child. Was she married? To whom? Was the child adopted? Where was the husband? It would seem that Father Shore and Roxanne would have had something more profound to say to one another after such an emotional and harrowing experience.

In summation, many believers and non believers, those of strong faith and those who have doubts about their beliefs, will take something different away from this film. I would only add that we will never understand God's ways. To those who believe no proof is necessary. To those who don't, all the proof in the world is irrelevant.

Dick Bobnick

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2.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining Attack on Catholic Church
The performances of this film are excellent. Ed Harris hits such diverse levels as the Catholic priest questioning his faith. Read more

Published on July 1 2002 by Lee Armstrong

5.0 out of 5 stars A haunting film...
"The Third Miracle" is a fascinating little movie that merits more familiarity among viewers. Read more

Published on Mar 22 2002 by B. Cathey

4.0 out of 5 stars A Miracle Movie
Ed Harris and Anne Heche are both great actors in this movie. Ed Harris plays a priest that is second guessing his calling in life. Read more

Published on Mar 11 2002 by C. A. Matha

1.0 out of 5 stars VERY, VERY WEIRD!!!!!!!!!!!
You would have to be VERY OFFISDE to enjoy this movie!!!! I turned it off after 20 minutes.
Don't waste your time or money on this.

Published on Nov 22 2001 by Greg

4.0 out of 5 stars A Haunting Film
This is a haunting film, with excellent acting. Unfortunately and unfairly, it seems to have been generally neglected in its theatre release. Read more

Published on Nov 11 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars You Can't Miss It
The question I keep asking after renting The Third Miracle is how could have missed it in the theaters. I mean, it's one of the best movies I have seen in many years. Read more

Published on Aug 17 2001 by Jim Crosson

5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply Haunting
'The Third Miracle' is one of my all time favorite movies for a few simple reasons: an intriguing, haunting plot; moving, believable actors; and beautiful cinematography. Read more

Published on Aug 12 2001 by K. Dickson

5.0 out of 5 stars Miracle of Miracles
The process of "making" a saint is an unusual topic for a film and Agnieszka Holland makes the most of it by bringing it down to the human level in "The Third... Read more

Published on July 25 2001 by MICHAEL ACUNA

2.0 out of 5 stars Did I miss something?
I was intrigued throughout most of this movie and, like everyone else, appreciated the "ah ha" moment near the end; but, I think I missed something at the very end. Read more

Published on Jun 10 2001 by Melissa

4.0 out of 5 stars The unsuspected healing properties of Group A blood
THE THIRD MIRACLE opens with an Allied air raid on a Czech town late in WW II. The sequence focuses on a little girl praying as the bombs fall, and on a wounded German soldier... Read more

Published on Feb 12 2001 by Joseph Haschka

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