I don’t have much knowledge about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or their difficult journey filled with hardship and miracles across the American Midwest to Utah in the 1850s, but I did find some positive aspects in this somewhat disjointed movie. Levi Savage (played by Jasen Wade, who resembles a lost Hemsworth brother) is among 500 individuals tasked with walking to "Zion" – Salt Lake, Utah – transporting their belongings using only handcarts. This group of Mormon pioneers includes many families from Europe, and Savage himself is eager to reunite with the son he left behind years earlier to serve a church mission. Savage voices concerns about the challenging journey; he recalls witnessing the consequences of the Donner party’s misfortune, but his warnings are dismissed, and he quietly obeys instructions. The film's title refers to various divine interventions experienced by these struggling travelers, ranging from unexpected food supplies to accounts of people being resurrected. An introductory credit acknowledges that the screenwriter has merged two separate journeys into a single narrative, and I suspect some characters are fictional or composites as well. This unusual credit leads into an equally unconventional film. There’s excessive repetition; Savage is repeatedly disregarded in the most polite way possible, only to be followed by a miraculous event. The families felt indistinguishable from one another, and Savage's interactions with a woman he has feelings for are awkward and uncomfortable—not in a charming or humorous way. Emotional depth isn't really present until the last twenty minutes of the film, which does include an exceptionally detailed epilogue detailing what eventually became of everyone. The true strength lies in writer/director T.C. Christensen’s visual style. He directs effectively, compensating for a limited budget (there’s no way there were actually 500 extras appearing in the background) with skill. The makeup applied to portray the gradually starving pioneers is excellent. Christensen's cinematography is stunning; the film is remarkably clear and beautifully lit, featuring appropriately harsh winter scenes that genuinely gave me chills—and as someone from North Dakota, I know a thing or two about cold winters. Skeptics might point out that a significant miracle missing is the guarantee that all travelers would survive, and this was something that bothered me too. "17 Miracles" is gentle and visually appealing, with Wade standing out among the rest of the cast, apart from Travis Eberhard as an exceptionally cute child actor. There's no harm in watching this film.

Source on TMDB