Director: Thaddeus O’Sullivan
Cast: Laura Linney, Kathy
Bates, Maggie Smith, Agnes
O’Casey, Mark O’Halloran,
Mark McKenna, Naill Buggy, Stephen Rea
Rating: (PG) ★★★
REVIEWED BY CHRISTINE POWLEY
This was a passion project for producers Joshua D. Maurer and Alixandre Witlin, who plugged away for 18 years to get The Miracle Club (Rialto) over the line. Along the way it had a total rewrite, which attracted the heavy-hitting cast.
I left uncertain if it was an example of great writing, where all the inconsistencies of human behaviour are on display, or of terrible writing, where characters behave randomly according to what the scene they are in requires from them. In the end I decided it was bad writing elevated by the performances into something interesting.
It is 1967 and the close knit working class suburb of Ballyfermot, Dublin, is awash with excitement. Local priest Father Dermot (Mark O’Halloran) has organised a trip to the healing waters of Lourdes, and a beloved local woman has died bringing back her daughter Chrissie (Laura Linney) who has been living in Boston for the past 40 years.
Chrissie is not happy to be back and her mother’s best friend Lily (Maggie Smith) and her former best mate Eileen (Kathy Bates) are just as unimpressed. There is a lot of ill feeling to unpick between these three but Lily and Eileen are off to Lourdes and Chrissie is keen to be away.
Then, for no given reason, Chrissie joins the bus at the last moment. Lily and Eileen are furious, Eileen claiming that Chrissie has designs on the priest. Bits of their shared past emerge and between them some understanding arrives but Chrissie remains an enigma.
