Story
Set in 1993 Kentucky, Ordinary Angels is based on the true story of Michelle Schmidt (Emily Mitchell), who was born with biliary atresia, a rare childhood liver disease. Michelle’s mother, Theresa (Amy Acker), has recently died, leaving her father Ed, (Alan Ritchson), to raise his sick daughter and older sister Ashley (Skywalker Hughes) on his own. Into this tragic situation comes Sharon Stevens (Hilary Swank), a hairdresser who’s determined to help in any way she can.
Sharon has her own demons to conquer in the form of alcoholism and estrangement from her son. Through sheer determination, Sharon raises money to help the family, who have thousands of dollars of debt for Michelle’s treatment and medication.
Michelle deteriorates and is given weeks to live when, at the last minute, a liver transplant becomes available in another state. With roads cut off because of a terrible snowstorm, Sharon, along with the help of many volunteers, manages to clear a path for a helicopter to land. This means Michelle can be airlifted to receive her life-saving operation.
Themes
Death and dying; loss of a parent; grief; alcoholism; childhood illness
Violence
Ordinary Angels has some violence, including when Ed loses his temper and gets frustrated with both his mother and Sharon.
Sexual references
There are no sexual references in Ordinary Angels.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
Ordinary Angels shows some use of substances. For example:
- Sharon drinks a lot of alcohol.
- Ed and several other characters smoke.
Nudity and sexual activity
There’s no nudity and sexual activity in Ordinary Angels.
Product placement
The following products are displayed or used in Ordinary Angels: Coca Cola.
Coarse language
There is some coarse language in Ordinary Angels, including ‘pissed off’ and ‘crap’.
Ideas to discuss with your children
Ordinary Angels is an inspiring movie, based on the true story of a young girl who’s saved at the last minute by a liver transplant. It shows how much can be achieved through the goodness and kindness of well-meaning people. It’s a very emotional movie and quite dramatic towards the end. Combined with the themes of death and sickness, this makes the movie unsuitable for children younger than 10 years. It’s more suited to teenagers and adults.
The main messages from Ordinary Angels are to never give up hope and to see the best in people.
Values in Ordinary Angels that could reinforce with your children include generosity, kindness, charity, hope, determination, empathy and compassion.
Ordinary Angels could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life issues like:
- strategies for coping with grief and life-threatening illness
- beliefs about what happens after death
- self-worth and how a lack of self-worth can lead to poor life choices and addictive behaviour.