# The Miracle Club

The Miracle Club is a 2023 drama film directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan, based on a story by Jimmy Smallhorne. The film stars Laura Linney, Kathy Bates, Maggie Smith, and Stephen Rea. Its plot follows a group of working-class women from Dublin on a pilgrimage to Lourdes in France.
The Miracle Club premiered at the Tribeca Festival on 9 June 2023 and was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland by Lionsgate UK on 13 October 2023. It was Maggie Smith's final acting role before her death in September 2024.

## Plot

In 1967 Ireland, two elderly women, Lily and Eileen, along with a younger woman, Dolly, form a musical band called the Miracles as part of a talent show organised by the Catholic Church and win tickets to go on a pilgrimage to Lourdes for various reasons. Lily wants to go to Lourdes as part of a life-long dream, Eileen hopes that a pilgrimage would cure a lump in her breast, while Dolly believes that it would make her mute son Daniel speak. The husband of each woman is vehemently opposed to their going, but the women refuse to stay. At the last minute, they are joined by Chrissie, the estranged daughter of their recently-deceased friend Maureen and a cousin of Eileen, who has returned from Boston after 40 years to attend her mother's funeral. Chrissie is initially reluctant to join the pilgrimage as her pregnancy with Lily's now-deceased son Declan had been openly revealed by Eileen, resulting in her being banished by her community. However, Chrissie changes her mind after learning that Maureen had given her a ticket to Lourdes, hoping that she could achieve reconciliation with those she left behind.
Arriving in Lourdes, Lily and Eileen express their enduring hostility to Chrissie, who gets along with Dolly, Daniel and the parish priest, Father Dermot. However, Lily gradually softens her heart after Chrissie willingly tends to her deformed leg. At the site's baths, Eileen loses her faith after being told by staff that there are fewer miracles that have happened than what she expected, while Daniel remains mute despite coming into contact with the water and hides in the grotto, where he is comforted by Chrissie. Lily backs out after hearing the screams of those bathing in its frigid waters.
That evening, a drunk Eileen lashes out in the hotel at Chrissie for her past and accuses her of flirting with Father Dermot, whom she also calls a charlatan due to her religious disenchantment. She also reveals that Declan, who was believed to have drowned, had actually committed suicide out of despair when Lily objected to his relationship with Chrissie. Daniel comes to Chrissie and signals that his mother is in distress. As the women gather around her bedside, Dolly confesses that she had tried to abort Daniel while she was pregnant with him, and expresses her belief that his muteness is a sign of punishment from God. As Dolly is comforted by her companions, Chrissie also confesses to have aborted her unborn child with Declan while she was in Boston.
The next morning, Lily asks Chrissie to accompany her to the baths. While waiting, Lily admits to Chrissie that she had lied to Declan about the circumstances of her departure, saying she was leaving for a better life in America and didn't want to be with him, which drove Declan to suicide. She then asks and receives forgiveness from Chrissie before they both take the waters. As they head home, Eileen apologizes to Father Dermot over her drunken behavior, to which Father Dermot replies that the real purpose of the pilgrimage was to sustain one's faith even in the absence of miracles. Eileen then reconciles with Chrissie, who reassures her that her lump may not be as serious as she had feared due to the lack of major symptoms.
Arriving at home, the women are greeted by their husbands, who appreciate them more after having had to do household chores in their absence, while Daniel utters his first word "home" though no one is near to hear him. In an act of reconciliation, Lily invites Chrissie to accompany her and pay respects to Declan at the site where he died.

## Cast

* Maggie Smith as Lily Fox
* Laura Linney as Chrissie Ahearn
* Kathy Bates as Eileen Dunne
* Agnes O'Casey as Dolly Hennessy
* Stephen Rea as Frank Dunne
* Mark O'Halloran as Father Dermot Byrne
* Mark McKenna as George Hennessy
* Niall Buggy as Tommy Fox
* Hazel Doupe as Cathy Dunne
* Brenda Fricker as the voice of Maureen
* Lesley Conroy as a nun

## Production

In December 2021, the film was in pre-production, having just received additional funding from the U.K. Global Screen Fund. The film was later shot in Dublin in 2022. This was Maggie Smith's final role before her death.

## Release

The Miracle Club premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Festival on 9 June 2023. It was released in the United Kingdom by Lionsgate UK on 13 October 2023. Sony Pictures Classics acquired the rights to the film in the United States, Latin America and select territories in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. The film was released in the United States on 14 July 2023.

## Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 66% of 113 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.7/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 51 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.