Small Miracles

This uplifting, international award-winning drama tells the profoundly moving coming-of-age story of 12-year-old Taliesin Jones (John Paul MacLeod), who is discovering girls, is bullied at school, and is struggling to get by at home. His mother (Geraldine James) has left, devastating Taliesin's father (Jonathan Pryce), a farmer, and embittered older brother. After witnessing his piano teacher (Ian Bannen) "heal" a woman's bad back, Taliesen embarks on a spiritual quest. He forms a secret society at his school, "The Believers." But his attempts to heal a classmate and his mentor's grave illness test his newfound faith.

Small Miracles

Small Miracles is a warm, funny, inspiring story with great performances from a superb cast. Jonathan Pryce is perfect as a somewhat befuddled father. Ian Bannen, in his last film, delivers a heart warming performance. New commer John Paul Macleod is enchanting as a young boy with good instincts and a soaring imagination. March 18, 2008

Small Miracles and big miracle in cinema.

I became totally absorbed in the movie the moment I began to watch it. For fear of revealing to much and ruining it for you, let me just say your heart will be warmed and you might even become a better person for watching this terrific piece of cinematic wonder. Highly Recommended!!! December 14, 2006

Small Miracles a Heartwarming Story Set in Beautiful Wales

This film was originally titled The Testimony of Taliesin Jones. It is named for the hero, a little Welsh boy whose mother leaves his farm family for a life in town. His experiences are touching, and seem to involve a gift of healing.

Delightful, beautiful, deserves to be better known than it is. November 10, 2006

A little-known but wonderful film about faith

This film has much to recommend it to both Christians and non-Christians as it tackles the issues of faith and what happens to that faith when things don't work out the way a person wants them to.

At first Taliesin isn't sure why he believes in God, but he knows that he does believe. Then he sees what he considers to be tangible evidence of God in the form of miracles,especially the healing of his own warts, only to have those miracles cease and his faith thrown into crisis. This movie exposes the view of 'God as a vending machine' that many people seem to have today. They believe that a person can put in his 75 cents worth of prayer and his miracle should be released to him. Thankfully, Taliesin's piano teacher, a faith 'healer', readily admits that his prayers don't always work, though that doesn't mean that God doesn't listen or doesn't care. The fact is that if God did heal someone or resurrect a person every time He was asked to, then no one would ever die.

True faith means living with the fact of troubles in life and the awareness of our eventual death, and yet still believing that God is good, cares for us, and has made provision for both our earthly and eternal lives through Jesus. Taliesin's true healing, and the bigger miracle, is when he comes to realize these things and is able to come to grips with the fact that his mother will not be returning to the family. I think the filmmakers may have missed out on an attempt to emphasize this point again with the final scene. In this scene the class bully asks Taliesin to pray for the healing of one of his fingers which was half-severed off. The viewer gets the idea that the bully also has emotional scars which need healing far worse than his finger does; however, I admit that to protract this scene and re-emphasize a point already made might well have been heavy-handed (or even ham-handed), so I can't fault them too much for this.

The bottom line, again, is that for both believers and non-believers, this movie demonstrates what faith is: it is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). August 31, 2006

Correction for Product Detail - this movie doesn't have CC

I can't review the movie itself except correction. Amazon.com has this movie as closed-captioned under Product Details (Format field). Really, this movie doesn't have it. I have to return the DVD for refund. June 25, 2006

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