I am not a great fan of Neil Jordan; yet this work showed patches of brilliance. Of course, Beverly D'Angelo was interestingly utilized for the main role with well-thought out body language between mother and son (Niall Byrne), vs woman and a young boy-old-enough to be her son, vs a young boy's infatuation for a woman who seems to like him, especially when she is is the only attractive woman in the village populated more by nuns than single women with some modicum of elegance.Considering that Jordan had himself written the script, the film is interesting when one considers the sub-plot of the boy's girl friend taming a "wild" circus employee into a human being, and later utilizing the symbolic freeing of wild animals. However ridiculous it appears in the film), it shows certain intelligent approach to the subject. Despite the interesting saxophone pieces played on screen, the film showed moments of highs in acting, screenplay and direction only to be followed by an inexplicable sudden drop in quality of film-making. Was Jordan under pressure from the studios/producers?It would appear that Jordan wanted to say more than he did but held back. Topics of incest have floored top directors--Fred Zinnemann's last film "Five Days One Summer" was an exception. It would have been interesting if D'Angelo's character had been developed further to show her interest in the boy without knowing that it was her son--to bring out the latent Oedipus complex in the tale. But Jordan's script reveals the facts to the mother early in the movie and what follows borders on brilliance. while never really achieving it.

In this under-rated film Neil Jordan has created a very real portrait of how some teen-agers actually think and feel. The treatment of such a touchy subject as incest handled with a deft enough touch to almost make it believable.Some editing to cut redundant scenes would have made this a truly great movie. While watching Niall Byrne it was hard not to think of look alike Australian tennis player, Leyton Hewitt.

Very much like Jordan's breakthrough, "The Crying Game," this earlier film wraps deftly realized details of contemporary Irish life around a fairy-tale plot, making an otherwise implausible denouement seem inevitable. Though the characters are almost archetypes, the solid performances and generally sharp dialogue freshen an age-old premise, and the banter between Jimmy and Rose is especially notable. The photography is at once unforgiving and lyrical, lending a haunted quality to the decaying seaside setting and evoking a carnivalesque atmosphere. The real star here, though, is Jordan's fundamentally cinematic sensibility; the effect the film creates would be diminished in any other medium. "The Miracle" amounts to more than the sum of its parts, and is one of this director's best efforts.

Two extremely obnoxious kids, plus a boorish father who, if he had truly been a well-developed character, would have beaten the living daylights out of his annoying son, but who instead, since this is a dumb Neil Jordan flic, only whimpers, and a woman of certain age who is no doubt a reject in her attempt to get the role of Jocasta in the Oedipus trilogy---slap these together and boil them lukewarmly, voila: TV soappopper a la Ireland.