Waiting for the Miracle to Come

This is a ponderous short feature (75 minutes) that won't appeal to all audiences. Waiting for the Miracle to Come reveals a fairly mundane story -- a woman given up for adoption suffers lifelong pain of abandonment until her daughter finds the equally grief-stricken grandparents and brings them together. Dribs and drabs of plot are doled out in an unnecessarily slow, confusing, and disorderly manner, as if that approach might lend it all the more meaning. It doesn't.

The part of Jimmy is said to have been written for Willie Nelson, so it's odd that he hardly gets to do anything here. But nothing -- neither character nor story -- is developed. Problems are raised and then in one quick line of dialogue solved. It's doubtful that any of this will be of interest to kids or teens used to linear narratives, never mind the quick editing and manic pace of YouTube, (the now defunct) Vine, and music videos. The setting and references won't help either. The era remains unclear throughout. There's a 1964 Ford Galaxie, clothing from the 1950s, and then a tape cassette (not widely available until 1968) shows up. To add to the confusion, the nostalgic sentiments about the greatness of Marilyn Monroe that took some years to develop after her death in 1962 are discussed as if she'd died decades earlier. It doesn't help that a ghost talks and appears to his daughter. The one strength here is the extraordinary and enduring poise and intensity of Charlotte Rampling. In general, it's impossible not to wonder about the filmmaker's intentions. As the story winds to its unsatisfying conclusion, one is still left wondering.