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Third Miracle [VHS]

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THE THIRD MIRACLE opens with an Allied air raid on a Czech town late in WW II. The sequence focuses on a little girl praying as the bombs fall, and on a wounded German soldier who sees her and the pigeons.

Fast forward to 1979 in Chicago. Father Frank Shore, played by Ed Harris, is a Roman Catholic priest undergoing a crisis of faith regarding his God, his Church, and his role as a cleric. Yet, he's also the diocesan postulator, i.e. the priest who investigates the life of any individual being popularly acclaimed for sainthood, and who makes a subsequent recommendation (thumbs up or down) to the bishop preparatory to the possible involvement of Rome. Fr. Frank is known as "The Miracle Killer" for his previous work debunking potential sainthood. Thus, the bishop tasks him with scrutinizing the life of one Helen O'Regan, who is, after her death, being proclaimed a saint by the members of a local parish at which she worked. Ostensible evidence for her special relationship with the Lord is the blood that drips from the eyes of a parish statue of the Virgin Mary during November when it rains. (Helen died in November during a rainstorm.) One miracle has already been reported, the complete cure of a little girl with fatal lupus erythematosis, Maria Witkowski, after she comes into contact with the blood while praying to Helen at the foot of the statue.

This is more a story of Shore's search for renewed faith than that of O'Regan's possible eligibility for sainthood, though the latter serves as the vehicle for the former. Shore is desperate to revitalize his life, and seems ripe to do so with Helen's daughter Roxanne, vivaciously played by Anne Heche. The scene between the two on Helen's grave is positively effervescent. Will Frank compromise his priestly vow of celibacy?

As the probe into the reported miracle and Helen's life continues, Shore comes into conflict with Archbishop Werner, played by Armin Mueller-Stahl, an arrogant, contemptuous, German prelate who believes that America doesn't need another saint, or at least one whose elevation is predicated on such evidence as presented in the O'Regan case. Werner is a member of a tribunal sent by the Vatican to hear that evidence, during which process miracle #2 occurs, again involving Maria. Even then, Werner's adamant opposition is not softened.

All actors in this film are splendid, especially Ed Harris, whose Fr. Frank is likely to be an enormously sympathetic character, especially with Roman Catholics, who are well acquainted with priests, bishops, saints, and the concept of miracles. I would even go so far as to say that only a Catholic could appreciate this movie. Those of other faiths might consider it a fairy tale about superstitious nonsense. Be that as it may, the film's "gotcha" is the plot twist surrounding THE THIRD MIRACLE. For Catholics, the film is a must-see, along with those gems from the past, CATHOLICS and AGNES OF GOD. All three serve to remind that, in the Age of Science, Faith cannot be absent.

'The Third Miracle' is one of my all time favorite movies for a few simple reasons: an intriguing, haunting plot; moving, believable actors; and beautiful cinematography. The visual aspect is stunning, conveying the emotions of the movie, or even a particular scene, without characters or words. I don't know if bits of it were filmed on location, but it seems so, beacuse of the stirring reality of the landscape.

Ed Harris and Anne Heche are fabulous, as is Mueller-Stahl. The preformance by Ed Harris, however, is Oscar-worthy on so many levels - brilliance, brilliance, brilliance. Overall, perfect.

Perfect actuallys sums up the entire movie. Moving, spiritual (I am an aethist, and as corny as this sounds, I was very close to re-examining my beliefs after watching this movie. The Catholic religion never looked so good!) and beautiful. Displays well all aspects, good and bad, terrible and wonderful, of the human spirit. Not to be missed.

And, contrary to some belief, also not at all boring. Intriguing in many ways.

Very smart movie which manages to simultaneously attack the Catholic church and hold it up for admiration. Watching this film I got the definite impression that the writer and possibly the director have a love/hate relationship with the grand old institution. The movie examines in depth the contradictary state of affairs in which the Catholic Church is an unofficial nation/goverment within an established nation, very much of this world, and at the same time a source of faith and inpiration to millions by following the investigation of possible miracles done in the name of a simple German woman who is now dead. In Ed Harris's character we witness the struggle between his desire to believe in god, the miracles , regaining his faith and his attraction to the dead woman's daughter. He's desperate to believe, but he wants also to have more from the physical world. All in all I have to give this movie high marks. It's suspenseful, thoughtful, intruiging, well acted and smartly directed. You care for the characters and those who are not as attractive you come to understand if not sympathise with. I didn't know what to expect when I rented this disc, but I gave it a chance and I'm glad I did. Give it a try. You also may be pleasently suprised.

The Third Miracle is more than simple the story of the canonization or attempt at canonization of a possible saint. It is actually more than the petty stuggles associated with the process. It isn't really even about the person that they are considering for sainthood. This movie is about faith.

What strikes the viewer is the different sizes and shapes that faith comes in. Frank Shore is struggling with his own doubts. Does God exist? And if God does is God concerned with the likes of him. He wonders what role he has or should have in the process. He's not sure that he has the faith to be a parish priest let alone the brilliant apostalate that they all want him to be. In contrast John 's faith which Frank Shore is envious of, is built on some bedrock which must be a gift from the sustainer of the universe. The Bishop Cahill's faith seems to have been swallowed up by his aspirations to climb the liturgical ladder. He believes but what effect that faith has on his own life or the power he wields over others is ambiquous. His faith is perhaps faith in himself that he has the best of everyone in mind. There are other's whose faith is real but their arrogance suggests that they indeed know what God would do and how God would do it. They are willing to argue with the sustainer fo the universe were That God present in that room. And Frank asks, "Isn't God present right now in that room?" Then there are those with no faith. This movie isn't about the inconsistencies and pettiness that all people share the world over. Those interactions just make the movie real. To think that they are only the machinery of the Cathlic church would be naive. This Movie is worth seeing by anyone who wishes to examine and judge their own faith. Perhaps when they honestly do they will judge other's faith less harshly.

The question I keep asking after renting The Third Miracle is how could have missed it in the theaters. I mean, it's one of the best movies I have seen in many years. You don't have to be a person of faith to see a priest suffering the horrors of hell in his heart and mind when everything he sees and touches doesn't make sense. That is, until his bishop puts him to work to find out if a fervent woman who lived in her parish convent was truly a saint. It takes three miracles to declare that a person obviously has a special relationship with God in Heaven, and the priest can prove only two. Ed Harris is wonderful, the hearing by cardinals and bishops is certainly fair and within our reach, compared to the images most people have about the power of the hierarchy. It's just a marvelous movie. Go see it.

By the way, the third miracle is right there in front of our eyes..but I won't spoil your enjoyment of a great mystery story. Jim Crosson

I can't quite get a handle on Agnieszka Holland. I've seen at least some of the more popular work she's produced, "Europa, Europa," "The Secret Garden." What--if anything--they have in common, I may have to leave up to future scholars to tell me. Well, I can say this much, her films are certainly provocative, regardless of how well or poorly they otherwise hang together as an oeuvre.

"The Third Miracle" is a remarkable film. Well worth viewing and then viewing again. Its treatment of the meaning of the miraculous in these post-modern times is neither heavy handed nor overly cynical. Much of the credit goes to a solid cast, including Ed Harris in his best role in years and Anne Heche. German actress Barbara Sukowa appears in flashback and Hill Street alumnus Charles Haid pops up as a skeptical cardinal who's all business. Armin Mueller-Stahl chews the scenery once again, which seems oddly appropriate here.

The film is not devoid of cliche, but overall, it is a smart, stimulating and well acted effort. I suspect that it could have been marketed more effectively--which is not to say that it was ever hit material. Certainly worth seeking out.

The process of "making" a saint is an unusual topic for a film and Agnieszka Holland makes the most of it by bringing it down to the human level in "The Third Miracle." And Ms. Holland is very lucky indeed to have two of the finest actors as her humans: Ed Harris and Anne Heche. Harris plays a priest whose job it is to verify the "saintability" of Heche's mother. There are several plot lines swirling around in the film including Harris' committment or lack thereof to his religion, the miracles themselves and who they happen to as well as the process of making someone a saint. What sets "The Third Miracle" apart and above most films is the manner in which the relationships are scripted. A script is the backbone of any film and the words are its'fingers and toes. "The Third Miracle" is an extremely hearfelt movie and an obvious labor of love to all involved. Order it NOW.

The Third Miracle is a good movie with rousing performances that, sadly, falls into the same old Catholics-in-movies traps that so many others have fallen in before them.

Ed Harris is fine as Fr. Frank Shores, a priest who devotes himself to researching miracles for the Church. At the beginning of the movie, he is "in hiding," living in a flophouse, having either lost his faith or moved in that direction with greateer momentum as a result of a previous investigation of a miracle that he...misjudged? We don't really know. He clearly regrets his decision, but the priest whom he was investigating died under dubious circumstance, and left behind some documents that can most generously be called "curious." Fr. Shores' decision seems like the only reasonable one. Still, he tortures himself for having destroyed a community's faith.

Shores' new assignment is to investigate an immigrant "housewife saint," who lived in a Polish-Catholic Chicago ghetto. Years earlier, a little girl with a terminal blood disease prayed to the church's statue of Mary, which bled on her; the girl was immediately cured. The blood, parishioners believe, is the blood of the housewife saint.

Anne Heche's character plays an important role in this movie, but is sadly misused. She is not only the daughter the housewife saint left in order to "pay her debt to God," she becomes Fr. Shores' predictably ultra-perky love interest. Yes, THAT old chestnut! Curiously, the filmmaker stops short of having them actually go to bed together...they just kiss, pant, and grope. There seems little reason for so explicitly revealing an attraction between the two, when actors as capable as they are could certainly convey this without the histrionics--in this case, less would have been more.

Armin Mueller-Stahl is perfect as the tribunal naysayer. He steals the scenes he's in. His resistance to Shores' housewife saint is only superficially convincing, and the scene in which he reveals it remains unconvincing--not because of the actors, but because it is poorly scripted.

Still, the movie is worth a look. The plot is tight, the performances moving. Ed Harris is an actor of considerable talent and breadth--you see it in this movie.

Made by a Polish director Agnieszka Holland, whose work is always controversial and often not accepted well by the American critics, this is not your typical Hollywood movie. It will be appreciated by people who feel that not all the answers can be found on a therapist's couch and who don't mind deliberate ambiguity of her work, which is designed to raise important questions that may be different for different viewers. The answers we should find within ourselves.

Although it is definitely a "Catholic Movie" and the Catholic theme is presented honestly and impartially, the movie rises above just one particular religion (Agnieszka Holland wrote and directed an acclaimed holocaust movie "Europa, Europa" which was denied German Oscar Committee nomination under quite bizarre circumstances. It's available in German with English subtitles).

Those who panic each time they come across ideas that touch that extra dimension within themselves that some call faith or spirituality and others just live with without giving a name, will find this movie weird and annoying. And in fact, this is the first question this movie raises: why do we have this need for the spiritual? What is faith and how much or little of it one needs?

Do you have to take the miracles literally? Do you believe that everything that happens in "The Wizard of Oz" can actually happen?
Of course not, but it creates an appropriate setting for investigation of some fundamental questions.

Some of the questions: where is the line between good and evil and even more important: is there a line? Where does this saint-to-be fall on the spectrum between good and evil? But then there is an answer: it really doesn't matter whether she is good or not in our understanding, because "It's God who makes the saints, not us". This woman has some special connection, but why? Her miracles are almost worthless. "If you ask me, God wasted a miracle" says the mother of a saved girl who grew up to became a junkie and a prostitute. "God loves the sinner." Do we really understand what that means?

Another miracle happens during WWII. "What is the point of saving one family when millions, millions died?" asks one of the tribunal judges. Saved by the miracle are a gypsy girl, a Catholic priest and a wounded German soldier. Hmm...
The plot is deeper than that, but I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen the movie.

The WWII theme is extremely important and is a glue that holds it all together, though it takes only about 5 minutes of the whole film. Why is it so important? Is it because without evil there won't be good?

Ed Harris is outstanding as Father Shore. A complex character that will require a separate review. Frank Shore is a man who probably would have made a better cop than a priest (he was raised by his cop father after all). He didn't really choose to become a priest. God chose him. Oh, you really have to see Ed Harris in this role.

Anne Heche is colorful and very believable as the woman's daughter. Some reviewers complain about intimate scenes between Father Shore and Roxanne. But how else would you appreciate the totality of their sacrifice without almost physically experiencing the totality of their attraction. I can't even call what was between them love. It was some fatalistic attraction of two abandoned souls. All these scenes are done in good taste. They never consummated their relationship and I don't see what there is to be upset about. Absolutely beautiful scene: they dance on the grave of her mother with a bottle of vodka. You have to see this.

Another amazing scene in the beginning when the daughter watches with intense emotion the video of her mother happily playing with the kids at the orphanage. It's visibly painful for her because this is the same mother who had abandoned her as a teenager, causing a lot of pain and a sense of rejection. Frank Shore, on the other hand, sees the same scene with the eyes of a motherless boy. For him, this woman is love.

Is Roxanne the other side of her mother? Not a saint, not even a believer, she produces her own miracle, a miracle of a different kind. In fact, there are more than 3 miracles in this movie and anybody can argue which one is the third. I think the fact that there are film makers out there who ignore the Hollywood proven recipe for box office success and make movies that are different is a little miracle by itself.

What does it all mean? There are things that are better not understood. Like in a beautiful verse, you will find new meaning each time you read it.

Of course in the end the answer is: "God wastes no miracle". And though the movie has a "happy ending" it doesn't leave you with the sense of a compromise, but rather bewildered and astonished.

Armin Mueller-Stahl, who plays "the devil's advocate" during the tribunal hearings needs to be mentioned as an outstanding actor. But there are so many gems in this movie that it just needs to be seen.

I'm Protestant, but this is one of my all-time favorite films. This story, which features a Catholic priest who is struggling with his faith and then must investigate miracle claims of a woman nominated for sainthood, is probably enriching viewing for any Catholic. But Father Frank is representative of people in many faiths and walks of life who must choose what to believe and how to live his life in the midst of tremendous uncertainty and high costs. Does he give up his faith and his life work as a priest because of his uncertainty? Who would he be if he walked away from the faith that has become his whole identity? If he did, would his new secular life be free of the doubt that now agonizes him? If he didn't, would his whole life become a lie? Roxanne, played by Anne Heche, has rejected Catholicism and the memory of her saintly mother, yet also wrestles with doubt, this time from outside the church. Roxanne is a counterpoint and a temptation to Frank, and her own conflict is not fully explored, yet it forms an important context for Frank's choices and what they do and do not promise him.

As someone outside the Catholic church, this film does two things for me. First, it makes me think about my own journey of faith. What do I believe, what do I reject, why, and what price would I pay for my convictions? But it also makes me think about Catholicism, the similarities and differences with my own faith, and why I understand that Catholic church and its doctrines the way I do.

Although the plot and the central conflict of this film are heavily Catholic, the strength of this film is in its fine character acting and the integrity with which it explores the struggle with faith, reason, and identity. If these are ideas that matter to you, or if you wonder what it might feel like to be the kind of person to whom they do matter, this is an interesting and valuable film. The religious themes are unique, honest, and spiritual, without being proselytizing or heavy-handed. A good film for anyone who enjoys being reflective about faith, whether or not they are among the Catholic faithful.