Ordinary Angels

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Short takes

Not suitable under 10; parental guidance to 11 (disturbing themes and scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Ordinary Angels
  • a review of Ordinary Angels completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 19 March 2024.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 10 Not suitable due to disturbing themes and scenes.
Children aged 10–11 Parental guidance recommended due to themes.
Children aged 12 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: Ordinary Angels
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes and occasional coarse language
Length: 118 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Set in 1993 Kentucky, Ordinary Angels is based on the true story of Michelle Schmidt (Emily Mitchell), who was born with the rare disease of Biliary Atresia, a childhood liver disease. To make matters even worse, Michelle’s mum Theresa (Amy Acker) has recently died from a sickness, leaving dad Ed (Alan Ritchson) to raise his sick daughter and older sister Ashley (Skywalker Hughes) on his own. Into this tragic situation comes Sharon Stevens (Hilary Swank), a hairdresser who is determined to help in any way she can.

As it transpires, Sharon has her own demons to conquer in the form of alcoholism and, consequently, an estranged son. Through sheer determination, Sharon raises much needed funds to help the family who are faced with thousands of dollars debt for Michelle’s treatment and medication. Michelle progressively deteriorates and is given weeks to live when at the last minute a liver transplant becomes available in another state. With roads cut off due to a terrible snowstorm, Sharon, along with the help of many volunteers, manage to clear a path for a helicopter to airlift Michelle to receive her life saving operation.

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.

Death and dying; Loss of a parent; Grief; Alcoholism; Childhood illness.

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:

  • Ed loses his temper on occasion, both with his mother and with Sharon, due to sheer frustration.

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.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • The sight of Michelle in hospital with tubes in her mouth could be upsetting for children in this age group.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • A funeral is held for Theresa.
  • Michelle frequently asks for her mother and wants to know where she is. She asks, “is she in heaven?” Ed and Michelle wave to ‘mummy’ in the stars.
  • A tornado hits the town and Ed and the family shelter inside a dark place while thunder cracks and rain lashes the house. They see by torchlight. Ed sees that Michelle’s eyes are turning yellow and he has to take her to the hospital in the driving rain.
  • The next day there is much destruction in the town, with houses destroyed and roofs blown off.
  • Michelle wakes up screaming in pain and her belly is quite swollen. She has to be rushed back to hospital.
  • Michelle coughs up blood. Sharon and Ed’s mum are seen covered in blood.
  • Ashley askes Ed if Michelle is going to die like mummy.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Theresa is seen in bed, dying. Ed cries by her bedside.
  • Sharon is seen drinking a lot of alcohol and behaving in a drunken fashion.
  • The doctors tell Ed to prepare himself for the worst as Michelle’s condition deteriorates.
  • Ed forces himself to enter Theresa’s wardrobe, where her clothes remain untouched. He cries as he looks through them.
  • Sharon tries repeatedly to contact her son Gary who doesn’t return her calls or messages. She eventually goes to see him but he doesn’t want to see her. He feels she was never there for him when he needed her. He says he feels sorry for Michelle if she’s depending on Sharon to help her.
  • Sharon fights her addiction to alcohol – she goes to AA meetings and pours all her bottles of alcohol down the sink. When things get difficult, however, she starts drinking again. She’s seen drinking out of a bottle. When she passes out through too much drinking, Ed tells her he doesn’t want her around the girls anymore.
  • Sharon tells Ed that she’s broken, always has been, and that her mother was an abusive alcoholic. She says she has a voice inside her head that’s always telling her she’s no good and not worth anything.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Some younger children in this age group could also be disturbed by the above-mentioned scenes.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Coca Cola.

Sexual references

  • None noted.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

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

  • There is a lot of use of alcohol by Sharon (as detailed above).
  • Several characters smoke, including Ed.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Pissed off
  • Crap.

In a nutshell

Ordinary Angels is an inspiring movie, based on the true story of a young girl who is saved at the last minute by a liver transplant. It shows how much can be achieved through the goodness and kindness of well-meaning people. It is a very emotive movie and quite dramatic towards the end, which, together with the themes of death and sickness, makes it unsuitable for under 10’s and more suited to teens and adults.

The main messages from this movie are to never give up hope and to see the best in people.

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

  • Generosity
  • Kindness
  • Charity
  • Hope
  • Determination
  • Empathy
  • Compassion.

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

  • How to cope with grief and life-threatening illnesses. It could also give parents an opportunity to discuss their beliefs of what happens after death.
  • The movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss the importance of self-worth and 'finding your purpose', and how a lack of self-worth can lead to making poor life choices and addictive behaviours.