Excellent but underrated film

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Salma directs this uplifting movie METICULOUSLY!!! I usually don't boo-hoo at a lot of movies as they are too unrealistic, and more monopolized along the way and geared toward a more favorable "unrealistic" Hollywood ending. Salma, gets down to simple folks with "GENUINE" lives and a very "unique Miracle" that happened to them one day. A town so miniscule, that one would not even consider giving a second thought of finding God there. Salma evidently found this one little town's WORTH was more than gold. Salma incorporates "simple" folks with very real lives, in very REAL situations on a day to day basis. She does not belabor on each of her characters, but allows enough for you to get just a brief glimpse of their ordinary lives. This is by far an extraordinary movie! If she managed this kind of movie with a limited budget, I can only envision what she is capable of if she had MORE to work with. Her creativity, no doubt, would UNDENIABLY SHINE!!! If you ever ponder the thought of wanting to "recover" your faith, this movie will move the very core of your soul!!!! EXCELLENT!!! PAR NONE!!!

Like a good piece of music, this film begins and ends with the poignant leitmotif of a whimsical slow waltz (literally, in the film score), a town transformed by the "miracle" in subtle, internal ways, while the flash in the pan economic boom of a tourist influx provides the noisy, festive outer miracle. An "illegal" Mexican boy has arrived in town on foot, looking for his lost father - and he leaves, at the end, with his father, on a bus returning to Mexico. In between, we are privy to a cross section of lives in the town, each life undergoing some sort of miraculous or redemptive change, all of it somehow related to the strange phenomenon of the bleeding Christ statue in the local church. The external plot framework revolves around the discovery of the "real" cause of the bleeding, while concurrently there is a frantic faith contagion set off by media coverage of the "bleeding Christ".Even as we see individuals pouring into town from everywhere experiencing faith healing a la Lourdes, the film almost loses it with a last minute major thematic flaw. Whether from the book author's choice, or from a modification by the movie adaptation, a last minute switch concerning the identification of the blood sample is thrust upon us, with the implication that the "bleeding Christ" indeed may be an authentic miracle. Unnecessary, and perhaps a bone thrown to those in the reading/viewing audience who would need such a literal validation. Otherwise, maybe they might not "get" the story about the real miracles? In any event, this reviewer feels that the plot twist, coming almost like an afterthought, weakens the genuine effect of the "miracle worker" being the young Mexican boy or that the ways of "God" may be unfathomable, and not dependent upon literal things. To hammer the "miracle" message, there is one gratuitous "drive the point home" line spoken by Peter Fonda (the priest) BEFORE the last minute switch, when he says of the boy, "There's the real miracle"... only to contradict his own insight, and all the development of the movie, when the second blood test comes back, causing the priest to run out of the room shouting "It really IS a miracle". Which is it, or maybe it's both? Confusions abound at this point, along with a passing sense of anticlimax. But fortunately, the film is near its beautiful and poetic end with the sequenced scenes of changes wrought in individual lives. We can decide for ourselves about the real miracles of this miraculous little movie.

Sometimes, films exist outside the formulas. Sometimes, they can make the viewer uncomfortable. The Maldonado Miracle fits both categories. It deals with United States/Mexico border issues with frankness, and that makes many very uncomfortable. Then, it moves into religion and raises questions like: What is a miracle? How different people react is extremely interesting. The viewer must consider some basic issues in his or her own faith, something else that most are not comfortable with. Yet, these issues are what makes this film well worth viewing.

I saw this movie on Showtime, because my wife wanted to see it. I like Selma Hyek's acting, but I wasn't especially interested in the story - or what I'd heard about it. Imagine my surprise when I found myself thoroughly enjoying the film.The acting from the main characters was understated, and perfect for the story. The cinematography was beautifully competent, and the set design was exquisite - Showtime showed behind-the-scenes snippets before and after the movie, and the brilliance that was displayed in creating such believable sets on such a small budget (often from the ground up)was nothing short of a miracle itself.All in all, I enjoyed this movie far more than I expected to, and I think the director and her crew show much promise.