Recently, I had to play a movie for one of my young relatives. Having some movies to choose from, I wanted something that would inspire, teach and connect with her. I didn't want cartoons, so I went back to a movie I watched some time back. It seemed like the best at that moment. Well, I guess it did, since the movie was centred around a child and she's also a child.
From the title, it's clear what the movie is about and what it's possibly portraying. “The Girl Who Believes in Miracles” is a Christian drama film in the Drama/Family genre. It stars Austyn Johnson (Sara Hopkins), Mira Sorvino (Bonnie Hopkins), Peter Coyote (Sam Donovan), Kevin Sorbo (Dr. Ben Riley), Burgess Jenkins (Alex Hopkins), Luke Harmon (Danny Hopkins), Tommi Rose (Cindy Kramer) and more. The movie was written by Richard Correll and G.M. Mercier, with the former directing it.
A movie like this in most cases would be from real-life stories. But this isn't the case here. While the plot is a complete fiction based on the biblical theme of faith, G.M. Mercier had a real-life situation that inspired him to write the movie. His granddaughter was sick and he was praying for her. He promised to write a story if she recovered from the illness. That brought about this movie and the spiritual tone to it.
The movie follows Sara Hopkins, a teenage girl who after listening to the message about faith in church, she was believing and chose to exercise that faith. The first incident occurred when she went to a lake together with her brother and his girlfriend at her grandfather's place to fish. Seeing a dead bird, she picked it up and prayed for it. Later, when her brother and his girlfriend returned to her, she told them she was seeing God on the lake at that moment. Suddenly, a gentle wind blew and the bird flew.
You could imagine how that might sound. Crazy, right? Yes. Her family as well found it hard to believe that. It happened again when she prayed for a dog that was hit by a car. The dog came alive. She also prayed for her best friend, Mark who was semi-paralysed due to an injury. The next day he was able to move his toe and eventually walked. News went round and many people brought their sick ones for Sara to heal.
There was more to the story as Sara and her family had to go through a situation no family would really want to. Was it a test of their faith or did God just have more plans? I like the idea that a child was used to portray faith. It's quite hard as adults to hold on to faith. Maybe because we're conversant with life and have become used to what we see alone. The movie suggests we look at faith as a child would. It might sound or look crazy, but that's what it is.
While I recently had to play it for my young relative, even as an adult, it speaks to me in a huge way as a person of faith. It's not a movie for children but for everyone who needs to see faith as what it is and exercise it without doubt. I kind of wish this was a real-life story, as it would have added reality and more weight to the theme of faith the movie carried. Nonetheless, it passed the message it was meant to, in a good and dramatic way.
The actors were good in their roles. Commendable is the young Austyn Johnson, who was the main character and delivered it well. I also liked how, in the earlier part of the movie, it seemed that her prayer for her brother to win their football match wasn't answered. It can seem so sometimes, even with faith. “The Girl Who Believes in Miracles” was an encouragement and a lesson to always have faith and exercise it when situations call. It was a good watch.
Thank you for reading!
Rating: 80/100
