Ordinary Miracles (2005)

Why so much hype?

A lot of fun.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Back when I was younger I knew a street kid who told me once if not a hundred times that all he ever wanted in life was a family. He and his sister were taken away as toddlers by the state who declared the parents unfit. He died at the age of 26 so the state did a remarkable job at raising him, he died of AIDS. I'd like to think that somewhere somehow that there was a father like C. Thomas Howell who grieved for his absence or a ghost mother like Sarah Aldrich who materialized at a critical moment in Lyndsy Fonseca's life. Most of all I'd like to think that judge like Jaclyn Smith came into his life as she did in Fonseca's life in Ordinary Miracles. That never happened though.Both Smith and Fonseca are having a lot of family issues. Smith is such a hardnosed judge that she nearly reported her old man who was a lawyer for asking an out of channels favor. But she takes a personal interest in Fonseca's situation and what happens is nothing less than your garden variety Ordinary Miracle.This is a nice well done film shot on location in San Diego with some sincere performances all around. Good Hallmark production.

Ordinary Miracles is a TV movie on Hallmark Channel that features Jaclyn Smith,Lyndsy Fonseca and C. Thomas Howell together with Sarah Aldrich,Corbin Bernsen and Erik Eidem.The film was about a troubled teen that is scooped up by a tough San Diego judge whose conscience causes her to bring the girl home with her to live when together they face tons of insecurities and personal problems to forge a special bond in this tale of survival, love and family.It was directed by Michael Switzer.Kay Woodbury is a tough, no-nonsense judge whose intractability in legal matters is intensified by a number of personal crises, including a bitter feud with her jurist father and her anguish over the recent remarriage of her ex-husband. Thus, Kay is no mood to play nice when teenager Sally Powell is brought before her. Harboring an intense hatred for the father who apparently abandoned her, Sally is a seemingly incorrigible delinquent who has already sent away from four foster homes. Figuring that she could no worse than anyone else, Kay takes Sally home on a trial basis. The girl proceeds to behave as atrociously as possible, but surprisingly Kay does not decide to write her off as a bad job, but instead concludes that what the girl needs is someone to trust and something to believe in. In this spirit, Kay locates Sally's birth father and upon being convinced that he was not motivated by selfishness when he dropped out of his daughter's life, secretly contrives for Sally and her dad to reconnect.In so doing, Kay finds her own way toward forgiveness, not only of those whom she feels have wronged her, but also of herself. This TV movie is an entertaining character study between two people who learn from each other.In this case,it is a judge and a juvenile delinquent.It is a good drama and well-acted one especially with Jaclyn Smith playing Judge Kay Woodbury. Don't miss it on DVD whenever you get an opportunity to rent it.

Hallmark is known for showing excellent movies. This one in particular was very good. I would think that it's about family and finding a place where you belong. Sally is this beautiful and bright girl who hides behind dark makeup and dark clothes because of the disappointment of being rejected four times as a foster child. Jaclyn Smith plays the character, Kay, who is a Judge and takes Sally in and finds the courage to bring her into her life. She encounters the swift announcement of her ex-husband getting remarried and is dealing with a straining relationship with her father due to a request that could have jeopardized her career all the while trying to handle this troubled young girl who only longs to belong. The bond between them slowly grows and is challenged when Kay finally locates Sally's father, a landscaper, and employs him for a task in her home without revealing to Sally who he really is. Once she finds out, she runs away with her loser boyfriend where they plan to run off to San Francisco but things don't turn out the way it was planned and Sally finds herself, once again, in a flustered situation. The movie unfolds at a steady pace. It's a nice movie to sit down and watch without having to be disturbed by violence, blood and guts and other action-related, adrenaline-flowing motives of that sort. It's a really good family movie with a good story line and fine acting.

This was actually very good. Didn't get to see the ENTIRE thing, but it was quite a good movie. The actors and actresses were very convincing. The moral of the story is basically believing in angels, and also explains the consequences of wrongful actions. It tells the story of a tough rebel named Sally, who at the beginning of the movie had trouble adjusting to her new foster mother, but as the movie goes along, she begins to understand that her foster mother loves her, and she begins to loosen up. I thought this was quite a good film, I do recommend it. This comes on on the Hallmark channel every now and then, if you have cable.