The Miracle Club review – Maggie Smith can’t save this rocky road trip to Lourdes

Laura Linney is upstaged by older co-stars Smith and Kathy Bates in this sentimental tale about a group of Dublin women who go on a spiritual journey together

Who’s up for a golden-hued heartwarmer set in 60s Ireland starring Kathy Bates and Maggie Smith about women with secret fears and dreams going on a church trip to Lourdes and finally finding the real miracle is their new compassion for each other? The answer to this question could well have been … me. I have a liking for a gentle tale and there is nothing necessarily wrong with, just occasionally, showing Ireland and the church of this period with something other than outrage and horror. But The Miracle Club does not at any time, to use a discredited metaphor, throw away its crutches and walk. And it’s painful to note that this is largely because of the way film can’t convincingly use that estimable actor Laura Linney in a central role. She is upstaged by the older, fruitier performances and doesn’t hold her own with a more serious persona.

In a tough district of Dublin, four women each have reasons for going on a trip to Lourdes. Tough-as-nails Eileen Dunne (Bates) is worried about the lump she has found in her breast, but would rather go to Lourdes than see a doctor; her shiftless husband Frank (Stephen Rea) wonders grumpily who is going to cook his supper. Maggie Smith is Lily Fox, a woman with a small disability in her leg, but whose reasons for going to Lourdes are more to do with her spiritual pain at the loss of her son. Twentysomething Dolly Hennessy (Agnes O’Casey) is going to bring along her little boy who for some reason will not speak. All find that their menfolk are obstructive about wives going to Lourdes or indeed doing anything independent whatsoever.

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