Passes the Bechdel test

The Miracle Club

Name: The Miracle Club
Released: 2023

2023. Directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan, written by Jimmy Smallhorne and Timothy Prager and Joshua D. Maurer.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
11 women characters. 13 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 16 scenes out of 95.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

The film

Ballygar, Ireland, 1967: a hard-knocks community that marches to its own beat, rooted in traditions of loyalty, faith and togetherness. There's just one tantalizing dream for the women of Ballygar to taste freedom and escape the gauntlet of domestic life: to win a pilgrimage to the sacred French town of Lourdes. And with a little benevolent interference from their cheeky and rebellious priest, close friends Lily, Eileen, Dolly and her son Daniel are the 'lucky' few to win this ticket of a lifetime at their riotous local raffle night.

Released: 14 Jul 2023
Genres: Comedy, Drama
Rated: PG-13
IMDb: 6.4 / 10
Metascore: 49 / 100
Awards: 2 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Eileen 174 lines, woman
Lily 125 lines, woman
Chrissie 103 lines, woman
Dolly 86 lines, woman
Fr. Dermot 56 lines, man
Frank 32 lines, man
George 19 lines, man
Cathy 16 lines, woman
Tommy 10 lines, man
Maureen 6 lines, woman

Full cast, 23 people

Maggie Smith as Lily Fox
Laura Linney as Chrissie Ahearn
Kathy Bates as Eileen Dunne
Agnes O'Casey as Dolly Hennessy
Stephen Rea as Frank Dunne
Mark O'Halloran as Father Dermot Byrne
Eric D. Smith as Daniel Hennessy
Mark McKenna as George Hennessy
Niall Buggy as Tommy Fox
Hazel Doupe as Cathy Dunne
Brenda Fricker as Maureen (voice)
Luke Jackson Smith as Patrick Dunne
Noel Gaskin as Taxi Driver
Sean O’Callaghan as Peter (Singer)
Shauna Higgins as Ruth (Peter’s Mother)
Lesley Conroy as Nun 2
Rose Henderson as Nun 1
Fionnuala Murphy as Mrs. Connolly
Amélie Kiki McCormack as Pilgrim Girl in Grotto
Alice Heneghan as Rosie Hennessy
Janet Grene as Nun at Talent Show (uncredited)
Martin McDonagh as Bus Pilgrame (uncredited)
Niamh McHenry as Pilgrim (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 2% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 95

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 2	0	0
3 to 4	3	0
5 to 6	3	0
7 to 8	9	10
9 to 10	26	5
11 to 12	0	0
13 to 14	9	9
15 to 16	7	5
17 to 18	4	3
19 to 20	21	0
21 to 22	27	3
23 to 24	20	1
25 to 26	9	3
27 to 28	3	1
29 to 30	8	10
31 to 32	7	7
33 to 34	15	5
35 to 36	1	2
37 to 38	5	5
39 to 40	4	2
41 to 42	5	0
43 to 44	0	0
45 to 46	3	1
47 to 48	21	0
49 to 50	12	0
51 to 52	22	0
53 to 54	30	5
55 to 56	7	8
57 to 58	2	0
59 to 60	21	11
61 to 62	30	0
63 to 64	12	0
65 to 66	14	0
67 to 68	5	0
69 to 70	2	0
71 to 72	21	0
73 to 74	17	6
75 to 76	7	0
77 to 78	2	1
79 to 80	52	4
81 to 82	6	0
83 to 84	11	0
85 to 86	0	0
87 to 88	14	2
89 to 90	17	0
91 to 92	7	5
93 to 94	9	6
95 to 95	0	0

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

EILEEN: You stay in and mind them kids. CATHY: I’m not minding them! EILEEN: Oh yes you are. EILEEN: Stop your winchin’ and do me hair!

DOLLY: Nothing to worry about there, girls. LILY: My nerves are rattling. EILEEN: I never won a thing in me life. Except when I got married — I won the sweepstakes then I can tell ya! LILY: What’s wrong with ye?

EILEEN: I don’t believe it! LILY: Jesus, it’s never Chrissie... EILEEN: She’s coming over. DOLLY: Who is it?

EILEEN: We all thought she was dead. DOLLY: She kept her figure all the same didn’t she? EILEEN: I wonder why? LILY: Didn’t notice a ring did you?

LILY: Holy Mother of Christ. EILEEN: I don't shaggin' believe it!

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 82 are women's.

530 lines from women, 120 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

11 women and 5 men in the cast. 13 women and 5 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 6 of 665. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 6 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 83% of the words (4,856), men 17% (1,019). Women have 82% of the lines, so their lines run longer than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Run the other way, for men, the film scores 2 out of 3.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

2 of the 16 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 32% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Thaddeus O'Sullivan (man)
Written by: Joshua Maurer (man), Timothy Prager (man), Jimmy Smallhorne (man)
Produced by: Larry Bass (gender not listed), Chris Curling (man), Aaron Farrell (gender not listed), John P Gleeson (gender not listed), Joshua Maurer (man), Oisín O'Neill (gender not listed) and 1 more
Shot by: John Conroy (man)
Edited by: Alex Mackie (woman)
Music by: Edmund Butt (man)
Production design by: John Hand (man)
Cast by: Maureen Hughes (woman)