Miracle Club, The

image for Miracle Club, The

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Not suitable under 12; parental guidance to 13 (themes, language)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Miracle Club, The
  • a review of Miracle Club, The completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 31 July 2023.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 12 Not suitable due to language and themes.
Children aged 12–13 Parental guidance recommended due to language and themes.
Children aged 14 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Miracle Club, The
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes and coarse language
Length: 90 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Banished from her community after an unplanned pregnancy, Chrissie (Laura Linney) returns home after the death of her mother. Her mother’s best friend Lily (Maggie Smith) and Chrissie’s former best friend Eileen (Kathy Bates), along with a young mother named Dolly (Agnes O’Casey), were all part of a singing group who were attempting to win tickets to visit the sacred French town of Lourdes in the hope of getting a miracle for Dolly’s young son Daniel (Eric Smith). With the recommendation of Father Dermot (Mark O’Halloran), Chrissie decides to join the tour at the last minute and accompanies the women to the legendary site of miracles, all the while believing that there is nothing she needs from such a place. As the women begin to communicate and past misunderstandings are explained and experiences shared, the animosity and tension begin to fade. The group may not have received the miracles they had come for, but the trip gave them all something just as powerful – it taught them humility and acceptance; it provided the opportunity for forgiveness and friendship; it showed them the power of compassion; and it gave them the strength to go on.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Family estrangement; Coercive control and gender stereotypes; Death of a loved one; Miracles; Divine Retribution; Illness (including cancer, anxiety, miscarriage, amputation, abortion and the inability to speak) and the hope for cures.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • A character dies at sea. It is implied that he committed suicide as he was an excellent swimmer and was heartbroken by the loss of his girlfriend and the lies he was fed by his mother.
  • There is mention of Mary watching her Son crucified.
  • Eileen asks Chrissie if she is the woman who killed a child.
  • Chrissie describes how she was forced to have a miscarriage and how it happened.
  • A character tells how she threw herself down the stairs in an attempt to miscarry her child.
  • A character asks Dolly if she smacked her husband.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • A reference is made to shagging.
  • It is repeatedly noted that Chrissie was pregnant at 17.
  • Eileen alludes to the fact that Chrissie is going after Father Dermot and notes how she ‘always did love a challenge’. She later makes a scene in a pub and says inappropriate comments about the pair who are nothing more than friends.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Characters wear bath towels as they descend into the holy water at Lourdes. One man is seen with a bare chest as he runs around wearing nothing but a towel after having his turn in the water.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Eileen appears to take prescription medication for anxiety.
  • Some characters smoke.
  • Chrissie describes how she was given pills in order to miscarry a baby.
  • Dolly tearfully explains that Daniel’s ailments are her fault as she tried to miscarry him by sitting in a tub filled with 5 bottles of whiskey.
  • A character is shown to have fallen asleep while caring for his child. There are three empty beer bottles on the coffee table.
  • Characters drink shots, beers and wine in a bar and Eileen appears to be quite drunk as she makes inappropriate comments about Chrissie and Father Dermot.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Bloody
  • Shite
  • Arse
  • Bollocks
  • Bastard
  • Feckers
  • Bleedin’
  • Christ on a bike
  • Hell
  • “Jesus” is also used as an exclamation.

In a nutshell

The Miracle Club is a comedy drama with a stellar cast and lots of religious references. The plot, which largely centres around healing from trauma, is best suited to older teen and mature audiences.

The main messages from this movie are that there is always hope, even if you do not believe; and that love and forgiveness are capable of working miracles in the hearts of those they touch.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Kindness
  • Forgiveness
  • Faith
  • Courage
  • Strength
  • Acceptance.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Putting absolute faith in something to provide a cure when the condition may warrant medical treatment.
  • Trying to control a partner or spouse and refusing to allow them freedom or the opportunity to help those they love.
  • Unplanned pregnancies and attempting to miscarry a child by non-medical means.
  • The ways that gender stereotypes can be disadvantaging to both sexes.