"Miracles from Heaven" is an "astonishing" true-to-life movie of faith and love about the miraculous journey taken by one young girl to heaven and back.
The movie tells the story of nine-year-old Anna Beam who fell headfirst 30 feet from a tree, but only sustained minor scraps and bruises, according to Rusty Wright in his movie review for the Assist News Service.
Anna was rushed to the hospital but was released the very next day. What's more, her chronic, life-threatening illness—called pseudo-obstruction motility disorder—was gone.
"Imagine that you're nine years old and your body won't process food and water correctly," Wright says about Anna's former illness. "You've endured endless medical visits, hospital stays, poking, needles, tubes, electrodes, blood draws, and pain. No known cure exists."
Even though Anna was usually optimistic, the burden of her illness sometimes felt too much to bear. At one point, she even told her mother Christy (played by Jennifer Garner in the film), "Mommy... I just want to die and go to Heaven and be with Jesus where there's no pain."
Things took a nosedive when Anna got into the tree accident. Little did the Beam family know that her fall would prove to be her saving grace.
"I went to Heaven when I was in that tree," Anna told her parents. "I sat in Jesus' lap." The young girl also said that an angel shone a bright light as she waited for rescue inside the tree.
Her parents were reluctant to accept their daughter's story, and even took down notes about it to check her consistency.
Wright said Anna delivered her story with "apparent honesty" as she miraculously recovered from her chronic disease.
"Anna's [near death experience] account evidence trail is much stronger than some," Wright said. "Anna first related parts of her heavenly experience the day after her fall, then a week later on local television, then again some months later to Christy."
