It’s time for one of those inspiring films based on a true story. As I always say it’s nice to watch ones where I’m not familiar with the actual events because then it’s all new territory for me. I get to just enjoy the story and see what happens. It’s a good story and of course you’re looking forward to the happy ending because if it went sideways then things would have really been ugly. That said, the characters are all dealing with a lot of flaws and trauma of their own so there aren’t very many perfect characters. They go quite far with this so it’s not exactly a happy go lucky film the whole time.

The movie starts by introducing us to Ed who has had a tough time of things. He lost his wife at a young age and has had to take care of both his daughters by himself. This is not easy and it has also broken him financially as his youngest daughter Michelle is extremely sick and needs constant doctor visits. Ed is someone who is very good with his hands and works a laborious job but it hasn’t exactly given him the down time to get his life back in order. He has no insurance, no real connections, and so the debts continue to get higher and higher. Fortunately a lady named Sharon hears about this and decides to help out. They may be strangers to her but she wants to make a difference and as the film goes on we learn more about her personal life as to why that is.

So right away I will say that my biggest issue was with Ed for the most part. Sharon does a whole lot to help him out, literally raising thousands of dollars early on to get him out of a jam. I can understand Ed silently resenting this to an extent because he wants to be able to take care of his kids on his own and I get that. The main problem is that he doesn’t really hide this at al and doesn’t treat her well even after she helps out so much. I think the worst of it is after Sharon makes a personal visit to the hospital and gets their board of directors to stop Michelle’s entire bill. Keep in mind that this bill was around half a million dollars.

That’s a bill that would have been impossible to ever get out from and while Ed thanks her, he goes back to being upset at her almost right after. It was really excessive. He was finally justified near the end of the film when after yelling at her some more, Sharon went back to her alcoholic ways and passed out when she was supposed to be watching the kids. That was really bad of course and so she should stay away from that point. Ed finally had a good reason to be upset at her but this was late in the film and even then he pushed her to it.

Ed is fundamentally a good guy trying to help his kids but I do think the movie fumbled a bit in playing it up this strongly. Meanwhile for Sharon she has her share of setbacks as well like when she continues to drink even while lying to her best friend. It can definitely be hard to beat any addiction and drinking is definitely one of the strong ones. That said, she still does her best to keep on helping out. She doesn’t get much closure with her son but you can’t win every battle. At least she does have the satisfaction of knowing that she was able to directly save a life now. I imagine that would be a strong component to help prevent her from getting into drinking again.

We get a pretty intense climax towards the end of the film as well as the characters are rushing to get through a snowstorm in order to get to the hospital. The storms get real intense as the film goes on and it’s a reminder of how strong the weather is. Even nowadays there are plenty of storms that people don’t dare to try and cross because they can completely wreck even the strongest of planes. The fact that somebody actually showed up to help after the TV broadcast was great. There was a really strong sense of unity here. When you see all of the negative headlines online it can be easy to be completely jaded on the whole idea of community spirit but it definitely still happens in some places. I imagine it might be tougher in a big metropolitan city but that’s why it’s good to at least know your neighbors. Build some relationships so everybody helps each other out and that definitely goes a long way. Who knows you could end up helping to save someone’s life someday.

Finally it was also refreshing to finally have a film about helping each other out without any big ulterior motives. It wasn’t because Sharon fell in love with Ed or anything like that. She just really wanted to help out and this was her chance to do something that wasn’t done for her when she was going through a tough time. Of course since it’s based on a true story that’s probably why it played out this way since I’m sure otherwise it would have gone down the Hollywood angle but this way just makes a lot more sense. There are plenty of reasons to help someone out without needing there to be romantic love in some way.

Overall, Ordinary Angels is a good movie about team spirit and how one person can make a difference. Perhaps you can’t do quite as much as what Sharon pulled off here but everyone has a lot of opportunities to do what they can to really help out. There will always be reasons that pop up as to why you might not want to help but the opportunities are still there. If you’re ready for a happy ending then you should check this one out. Like I said before it’s not fully happy so you need to prepare for the drama and trials but at least you know it’s heading towards a satisfying conclusion so that’s always a load off. I’m sure one day it’ll backfire and I’ll watch a film about a true event that has a sad ending but hopefully that day is really far off from the present.