The movie's heart is its greatest feature. It's very easy to get behind this child and want to see him succeed when everyone else is telling him there's no way he can compete in such a long distance race. However, within that, the film does start to resemble a Disney made picture and start to get cliched.

Butcher needs more training, or talent. He had a great character, but his delivery was very stiff and had little dynamics. Supporting actors Jennifer Tilly (Bullets Over Broadway), as a nurse tending to Ralp's mother, and Campbell Scott (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) as Ralph's instructor and eventual cross country coach did very well for the picture.

Another thing I liked about this character of Ralph is that he isn't a very pleasing kid. He smokes, swears and completely disrespects the Catholic schooling he's been sentenced to endure, being outside his mom in a coma, Ralph is practically an orphan.

I think the film did a great job of showing Ralph in training, to where the viewer sees him develop enough to believe he could actually compete in the Boston Marathon.

Writer/director Michael McGowan (My Dog Vincent) did a great job of story writing and character development and growth. He also did justice to the film's imagry, being shot on 24p DV, giving the respect to the cinematography as a 35mm film production would.

Overall, "Saint Ralph" is well worth watching. It's an inspiring picture with a couple of cliches, but an unformulaic ending, as far as the big race goes. Rent it if you need a little pick-me-up. It's pretty funny and very cute.