The Maldonado Miracle (2003)

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

If you want to see a beautiful movie that will bring tears and an uplifting feeling of joy, watch, 'The Miracle at Maldonado.' Ruben Blades turns in one of his best performances, and Peter Fonda plays a wonderfully under-stated Priest. Eddy Martin, who plays Jose, has a wonderful radiance and a maturity beyond his years. The movie is first time directed by Salma Hyek, one of my favorite actresses. Frankly I am amazed at the job Salma has done with this movie. What could have been just another low budget movie with has been actors turns out to be something very special. If this movie doesn't get at least an oscar mention, 'something is rotten in the state of Denmark.' Mare Winningham lends kind of believability to her role transcends acting. Do yourself a favor, watch this one. You'll be glad you did.

Like a good piece of music, this film begins and ends with the poignant leitmotif of a whimsical slow waltz (literally, in the film score), a town transformed by the "miracle" in subtle, internal ways, while the flash in the pan economic boom of a tourist influx provides the noisy, festive outer miracle. An "illegal" Mexican boy has arrived in town on foot, looking for his lost father - and he leaves, at the end, with his father, on a bus returning to Mexico. In between, we are privy to a cross section of lives in the town, each life undergoing some sort of miraculous or redemptive change, all of it somehow related to the strange phenomenon of the bleeding Christ statue in the local church. The external plot framework revolves around the discovery of the "real" cause of the bleeding, while concurrently there is a frantic faith contagion set off by media coverage of the "bleeding Christ".Even as we see individuals pouring into town from everywhere experiencing faith healing a la Lourdes, the film almost loses it with a last minute major thematic flaw. Whether from the book author's choice, or from a modification by the movie adaptation, a last minute switch concerning the identification of the blood sample is thrust upon us, with the implication that the "bleeding Christ" indeed may be an authentic miracle. Unnecessary, and perhaps a bone thrown to those in the reading/viewing audience who would need such a literal validation. Otherwise, maybe they might not "get" the story about the real miracles? In any event, this reviewer feels that the plot twist, coming almost like an afterthought, weakens the genuine effect of the "miracle worker" being the young Mexican boy or that the ways of "God" may be unfathomable, and not dependent upon literal things. To hammer the "miracle" message, there is one gratuitous "drive the point home" line spoken by Peter Fonda (the priest) BEFORE the last minute switch, when he says of the boy, "There's the real miracle"... only to contradict his own insight, and all the development of the movie, when the second blood test comes back, causing the priest to run out of the room shouting "It really IS a miracle". Which is it, or maybe it's both? Confusions abound at this point, along with a passing sense of anticlimax. But fortunately, the film is near its beautiful and poetic end with the sequenced scenes of changes wrought in individual lives. We can decide for ourselves about the real miracles of this miraculous little movie.

This was definitely a pleasant surprise. When my wife brought it home, I was very skeptical, but it is an interesting and entertaining movie. Salma does very well with artistic moments--showing poignant images and voiceless narrative--but not letting them bog the movie down. It is impressive how she was able to let us peek into the lives of more than a dozen characters, letting us see their struggles and feel that we know them, without getting lost in a mishmash. She also had the good sense to end the movie when it was done. While not a great movie, it is a good movie and much more watchable than any movie Robert Redford has directed. Keep up the good work.BTW, the song during the end credits is haunting and, interestingly enough, sung by Mare Winningham.

"The Maldonado Miracle" tells of a SoCal town ala Mayberry RFD with a handful of stereotypical townsfolk type characters who get caught up in a frenzy of activity when a statue of Christ appears to be crying tears of blood. A potpourri of oh so perfectly imperfect people from the parish priest (Fonda) to the cute little poor Mexican boy with a dog who wants to find his papá to the pot bellied Sheriff with a sickly old mother, etc., this flick is a contrived and obvious button-pusher which Hayek is trying turn into a fountain of warm and fuzzies. As one might expect, the film bears the fingerprints of a novice auteur and plays out as little more than a no brainer cable watch for sentimentalists who ascribe to the principle: It is, therefor it's good. Mediocre stuff now on Showtime. (C+)