If you're looking for a feel good movie that the whole family can watch then Saint Ralph is a great choice.
It's an earnest innocent look at a young boy's attempt to run in and win the Boston Marathon.
Source: Imdb.com
Who's in it?
To be honest I didn't recognize very many of the actors in it.
Sometimes that's a good thing and it can be kind of refreshing.
The main character Ralph Walker is played by Adam Butcher.
Never heard of him.
The second main character Father John Hibbert is played by Campbell Scott who I once again never heard of.
Gordon Pinsent who plays Father Fitzpatrick looks familiar but I'm not sure where I've seen him.
In fact there's only one character in the entire movie that I'm certain that I've seen before.
That is Nurse Alice played by Jennifer Tilly.
I wouldn't be surprised that the younger generation didn't know who she was either.
So you can see that there's no real standouts in the cast.
What's it about?
The story is pretty simple but sometimes that can be a good thing especially for a family oriented movie like this one.
Our main character Ralph Walker goes to a Christian School.
He is surrounded by good kids who study things like the bible, many of whom want to be nuns or priests.
He's also surrounded by several priests that are constantly trying to teach him to learn his place in society.
Ralph Walker is a bit of a troublemaker.
He smokes, curses, hits on girls, and he overall doesn't take life seriously........ especially not nearly as seriously as the priests would like him to.
Ralph has a problem though.
It turns out his mom is in the hospital and so Ralph has to pretend that he's living at his grandma's house even though she is dead.
Not long after the movie begins his mother falls into a coma and he is told that it would take a miracle for her to wake up.
Ralph ends up joining the cross country team and decides maybe he can make that miracle happen by attempting to run the Boston Marathon.
He ends up getting trained by a priest that used to be a marathon runner.
It's really a feel good movie that keeps you wanting more.
How long is it?
A lot of times a family movie ends up dragging on and on but this is not the case here.
The movie itself is one hour and 38 minutes but it seems like he goes by a lot faster than that.
It's probably because there are several different sections to the movie.
For example you have the beginning part where Ralph is making trouble at school.
After that there are the parts with his mother in the hospital falling into the coma.
The third segment has some training to run in the marathon.
The final part has him actually running it and everyone cheering for him and it's just a really great feel good scene.
