swedeboi
The movie is set at a Catholic boarding school in Hamilton, Ontario, and recounts the story of a young kid who seeks a miracle to help his mom who is in a coma. The miracle he selects is highly improbable, winning the Boston Marathon. Many obstacles are placed in his path, not the least being his youth and his authoritarian headmaster. What happens in the race must remain hidden to you. Don't even THINK about reading a review with a spoiler alert.Others have said it. I will reiterate it. Saint Ralph (2004) will make you laugh and make you cry. An early scene, followed by what is best described as sight-gag scenes based on it, will have you laughing. The climactic scene, accompanied by a song that must have been selected by a genius, will have you in tears no matter who you are. Laugh and cry...really, what more can a movie do? Well, in this case, a lot.Every aspect of the movie justifies its overwhelmingly favorable IMDb rating. The cinematography is crisp and colorful. The settings are perfect. The acting is superb. The musical selections are ideal.Fourteen year-old Adam Butcher, who plays the lead role as Ralph, is just superb. You couldn't find a more likable young actor in all of Canada. (Adam would go on to even greater acting achievements, most notably in Dog Pound in which he powerfully plays the role of a disaffected and temper-prone teen trying to survive in a juvenile detention facility...another must-see.) The other characters in Saint Ralph are excellent as well, especially Gordon Pinsent as the headmaster and Gordon Campbell as the priest who coaches Ralph.The bottom line is this. The acting in this film holds your interest from start to finish. The musical selections are extraordinarily fitting. The movie spans the spectrum of human emotions. And, most importantly, the movie leaves you feeling fulfilled.
gimlet_eye
An adolescent is a young adult struggling, at first fitfully, and at last urgently, to escape the chrysalis of childhood into adulthood. It is a process that is at best awkward, and at worst destructive and even self-destructive.Ralph is an adolescent of 14 who is prematurely confronted with issues that even a boy of 17 or 18 would find daunting. He is, in essence a secret orphan who undertakes to support himself (through deceit and petty crime) in the desperate hope that by retaining his autonomy that he will somehow be able to rescue his dying mother from her fate as long as he remains in control of his own. To Father Fitzpatrick, the strict and narrow-minded priestly headmaster of the Catholic parochial school Ralph attends, the boy appears to be nothing but an authority-defying rebel, who is to be tolerated and allowed to remain on the schools rolls only out of a formal, obligatory kind of charity that recognizes the anguish of losing one's last parent. The authorities, however, have no idea that Ralph is living on his own.Ralph, though young and naive, is an intelligent, intuitive boy, who not unreasonably sees his own life hanging by the thread of his mother's life, and in any case he loves her deeply. His mind and soul is thus, given his thoroughly Catholic upbringing (his adolescent chrysalis is a typical Catholic one), fertile ground for a belief in miracles.And this isn't just an inspirational movie: it is a story about the possibility and meaning of miracles, which lie at the heart of Christianity, especially in its traditional Catholic form.That might seem to limit the movie's appeal to those of us who don't believe in miracles (at least in this modern scientific age), and the generally very positive, but at the same time slightly puzzled and critical, reactions to this movie, I think reflect this dilemma. In particular, the criticisms revolve around the miraculous, and therefore categorically unrealistic, goal that Ralph adopts as his personal quest: not just running the Boston Marathon, but winning it.To put it still more starkly, it would seem that either this is a movie that speaks primarily to Catholics who yearn for a revival of the passionate beliefs that once infused their religion, or that if the movie is intended for a more general audience, that it is significantly flawed by its unrealism.However, just as it is possible for a modern educated person (not necessarily a Christian either) to salvage the fundamental meanings of the fantastic Bible stories by reading them metaphorically, so it is possible to experience this movie as an inspirational fable that speaks to all of those who seek personal transcendence. And understood in this way, "Saint Ralph" emerges as a drama about personal transcendence through love - real Christian caritas, not formal, Pharisaic charity.Ralph himself is the fountainhead of love in this story. Yet he is in every other way a typical 14 year old male adolescent, a bit more rebellious and independent than most, perhaps, but a boy just about any of us can identify with. But he discovers in the course of the burgeoning crisis in his young life that he has a vast, heretofore untapped, reservoir of overflowing love, and at the same time an unexpected capacity for faith in himself. And this love indeed works miracles of a kind that even a non-believer can believe in and appreciate.Ralph's love spreads out from himself, first to his one or two friends, then to his would be mentor and father figure, Father Hibbard, who has been in grave danger himself, under the influence of his despotic headmaster, Father Fitpatrick, of hardening into a desiccated life as a mere functionary within a system. Hibbard reluctantly, but duteously, accepts his headmaster's commandments to stifle and regulate his own intellectuality and passions, even, directed as they are to his chosen mission in life: to develop and foster the minds, characters, and spirituality of his young charges. And in accepting this discipline, no doubt formally required by his religious order, Hibbard has kept himself on track to become another Father Fitzpatrick - a petty tyrant hated and feared, presiding over a barren realm of decorum and order, whose own residue of love is dispensed in carefully measured teaspoons.However, as Ralph's overflowing love begins to transform him into a great runner, it becomes transformative also for Father Hibbard, who like Ralph begins defying his headmaster, at first in secret, and eventually openly. In the end Ralph's love, spreading out in widening ripples, conquers all.In short, Ralph can be seen to be the modern secular equivalent of a saint, although his inspirational story is told with the faintest tinge of irony.I think that this was the intention of the creators of this movie, and if their story requires somewhat of an imaginative transformation that may not be congenial to all viewers, and certainly poses some unnecessary difficulties that may reasonably be accounted flaws, I think that the movie is on the whole a considerable success. Long distance running is a classic metaphor for life, and the movie ably captures, largely through its cinematography, the triumph of faith and joy over pain that can be achieved in that sport, which I believe from my own personal experience, comes just about as close to miraculous self-transcendence as one can hope to achieve in this life.
Jackemeyer
My summary should be taken to mean that I am that little boy, or at least I was years ago. I was surprised at how closely I could identify with the lifestyle of Ralph and with his expressions concerning his experiences.I too grew up in a god-centered universe, one which attempted to impose values for no other apparent reason than short-term control over my actions. I am atheist now, thanks in some part I feel, to that over-bearing presence.I deeply enjoyed the acting of Father H because of his portrayal of a contemplative yet self-restricting do-gooder. Deeply enjoyed the acting of Father F because of his portrayal of a man closely guarding his perspective by limiting the creative output of those around him, meanwhile exposing his self-hatred with miniature explosions of emotion. Whew, powerful men! And deeply enjoyed Ralph, who caused in me bursts of laughter as he discovered with an open mind -- beautiful!Given the "type" of movie, I can easily say my 10/10 vote reflects a straight forward opinion -- I mostly demand consistently portrayed characters, and then simply hope for a good story. But I must admit, that I was partial due to my close association with the experiences of Ralph, a hero!
