‘Bizarre Angels’ Evaluate: A Hairdresser Turns Lifesaver

This based-on-a-true-story drama begins with the beginning of a child woman, cuts virtually on to a dying 5 years later — that of the kid’s mom — and cuts once more to a bar in Louisville, Ky., the place a flashy native hairdresser is shopping for drinks for the home as she contrives her subsequent hangover, which will likely be a doozy.

The mom’s dying leaves her husband, Ed Schmitt (Alan Ritchson), a roofer, as a single mother or father with a stack of medical payments and a daughter, Michelle, 5, who has a congenital situation that requires a liver transplant.

Sharon — the hairdresser, performed by Hilary Swank — learns of Schmitt’s plight and decides to assist the household as a spotlight for her energies after reluctantly attending an A.A. assembly.

Whereas this isn’t a authorized thriller, Swank’s brassy character provides off heavy “Erin Brockovich” vibes. “I’m good at loads of issues; taking ‘no’ for a solution is just not one in all them,” she advises the stolid, cautious Ed when she insists on commandeering his funds. There’s a hospital convention room sequence by which Sharon snaps “Was that humorous?” at a smirking bureaucrat who laughs on the thought of wiping out Ed’s medical debt due to the household’s hardships.

The filmmakers — Jon Gunn directed from a script by Kelly Fremon Craig and Meg Tilly (of “Agnes of God”) streamline the real-life occasions: In reality, each of Schmitt’s daughters suffered from the identical sickness, biliary atresia. Solely Michelle’s story, nevertheless, gives the chance for movie-friendly dialogue like “We want a airplane.”

Regardless of its bona fides, the flicks narrative and characterizations virtually gorge on clichés. They break freed from them as soon as in a comparatively bracing scene that demonstrates that Sharon’s altruism is at the very least partly a type of habit habits.

Bizarre Angels
Rated PG. Operating time: 1 hour 56 minutes. In theaters.