In London, Alec Bailey had a repair shop for electric appliances he called "The Healer." However, his mismanagement and womanizing had affected his business to near bankruptcy. One day, his estranged uncle Raymond Heacock, brother of his departed mother, contacted him that he would pay off all of Alec's debts. The catch was that Alec should spend an entire year in remote town in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Pushed to the wall, Alec agreed, and immediately regretted his decision when he could not get used to the provincial life. After a few days of staying there though, he unexpectedly realized that he actually possessed the ability to treat human diseases -- a superpower that ran among the men in his family when they reach the age of 30, one in every other generation. Alec had to decide whether he accepts to be The Healer or not.
I had no idea what this film was going to be about when I started to watch it. After a rough start with how crazy Alec's life was in London, it succeeded to grab my attention in the scene when he met his uncle Raymond and the unusual deal was struck. In the Canadian rural scenes, the Catholic parish priest Fr. Malloy had prominent scenes, suggesting a faith based film. The too-pleasant-to-be-cool musical score with the quality of a Hallmark film to it corroborated this feeling.
However, this was rather different from a typical faith-based film. This one actually had naughty humor which involved "un-Christian" sexual behavior, like adultery, fornication or homosexuality. There were even several profane words being said. Hence, this one was not all bland goody-two-shoes vanilla. It actually had an edge. It was not too predictable. The story was quite engrossing for me, although admittedly it lost steam in the final act with the arrival of the character of Abigail, the cheery teenager with cancer.
Oliver Jackson-Cohen (who played adult Luke Crain in Netflix series "The Haunting of Hill House") played the lead character Alec. Alec was a rather unlikable guy as written but Jackson-Cohen injects some of his charm into him. Camilla Luddington (who played Dr. Jo Wilson on "Gray's Anatomy") was a breath of fresh air as the local farm vet Cecilia, on whom Alec had an immediate crush (and who could blame him?).
18 year old Kaitlyn Bernard played Abigail, the vivacious teenager with cancer of the blood, who was the focus of the third act. She did not really look or act very sick, but she was being Abigail living life to the max. Her chemistry with fellow actors Jackson-Cohen and Luddington was easy and convincing. Jorge Garcia (whom I last knew as Hurley, the obese guy from "Lost") played the doubting priest Fr. Malloy. Jonathan Price did not really need to flex too much acting muscle to play Alec's mysterious benefactor, Mr. Raymond Heacock.
At the end of the film, they revealed that the film was made to benefit a charity for seriously ill kids. The filmmakers dedicated the film to actor Paul Newman as another kind of healer who worked hard for raise money for similar charities for kids. We do not all have the power to cure all diseases, like Alec the Healer. However, this unexpectedly engaging film reminds us that we can all also be healers in our own ways by supporting organizations who work toward that noble goal. 7/10.
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