(Canada)
Screened May 9, 2005
The opening film of the Canada First! Programme at the 2004 Toronto International Film festival, Saint Ralph is a bittersweet story of a boy who has the temerity to believe he can make a miracle happen. It stars newcomer Adam Butcher as Ralph, along with Gordon Pinsent, Jennifer Tilly, Campbell Scott, Shauna MacDonald and Mulmur resident Tamara Hope as Ralph’s love interest. The film is directed by another Mulmur resident, Mike McGowan. Set in the fifties in Hamilton, Ontario, Saint Ralph introduces us to an unexpected but highly likeable hero, Ralph Walker. A ninth-grade student at a Catholic school, Ralph is on the verge of becoming an orphan: his father is dead and his mother is critically ill in the hospital. When she lapses into a coma during one of Ralph’s visits, it seems that only a miracle will improve her health – so Ralph sets out to make that miracle happen.