“Ordinary Angels” is a kind-hearted weeper that gets by on good vibes and the talents of the Unsinkable Hilary Swank.

Based on a true story, it’s a faith-based film about what people can do when they act out of compassion, not self-interest or hate, and a reminder that “miracles” aren’t supernatural. They’re the work of good people doing good deeds, out of character and against the odds.

Swank plays a blowsy, honky-tonkin’ Louisville hairdresser who isn’t shy about giving her denim skirts and fringed leather jackets a twirl from the top of the bar, drinking until she can “make just one’a these guys look my age.”

Sharon Stevens has a problem, but it’s only obvious the morning after. That’s when he colleague Rose (Tamala Jones, quite good) tries to intervene and get this drunk to a meeting. Whatever Sharon’s drinking to forget, her problems pale compared to some folks.

Take the Schmitt family. Ed (Alan Ritchson, terrific) is a roofer barely scraping by, a guy who buries his wife and doesn’t know how he’s going to pay for a liver transplant for his five year old daughter, Michelle (Emily Mitchell, adorable).

Because Ed’s buried under the bills he couldn’t pay when medical science failed to save his wife. Sharon reads about their problems in the newspaper, shows up at the funeral and makes that “If there’s ever anything I can do” offer.

She’s muttered what a “stupid” idea it is of her to just show up, a long time between “meetings,” a six pack in the car. But whatever her failings, she’s got a big heart and the pluck to turn her focus from addiction to “saving” this one little girl.

It begins with an unbidden “Shear-a-Thon” hair-cutting fundraiser. Next thing Ed and his mother (Nancy Travis) know, Sharon’s dressing up his work portfolio, diving into his stack of unpaid bills and strategizing, fundraising and “negotiating” her way through them.

“I’m good at plenty’o things,” she drawls. “Takin’ ‘No’ for an answer ain’t one of’em.”

Obstacles will arise, and Sharon’s “Say yes” until “you can figure things out” ethos comes in handy. But it can only take one so far. Tornados and blizzards will intervene. They’ll face the impossible odds of the national liver transplant registry. Sharon’s personal demons and a lot of phone calls and legwork dominate this 1990s story of Ms. “Can Do” trying to gin up a miracle.

Of course, there’s s a subtextual can-of-worms this conservative faith-based drama opens but doesn’t address, the shameful state of health care in “the richest country in the world.” Decades have passed since this story took place, and massive resistance to nationwide Medicaid to save families from medical bankruptcy by Big Insurance, Big Med and rich fat cats have bought generations of Senators and Congresspeople to ensure this unique-in-the-civilized-world crisis is never solved.

Victims of this system still use the media and now have Go Fund Me efforts to try and stave-off financial ruin at their most vulnerable moment.

But that political debacle takes a back seat to the mounting difficulties that one and all must overcome in a third act that is guaranteed to deliver tears.

It isn’t the most graceful narrative, but two-time Oscar-winner Swank lands her laughs and her good ol’gal keeps the melodrama from tumbling into maudlin.

You want a model of how faith-based films can burnish the seriously-tarnished brand of American Christianity, you’re not going to find it in the discredited, angry “Sound of Freedom” or anything starring Kevin Sorbo. Here’s how it’s done, “miracles” performed by people of faith who actually paid attention in Sunday school and put their hearts where their faith is.

Rating: PG, alcohol abuse

Cast: Hilary Swank, Alan Ritchson, Tamala Jones, Emily Mitchell, Skywalker Hughes and Nancy Travis.

Credits: Directed by Jon Gunn, scripted by Kelly Fremon Craig and Meg Tilly. A Lionsgate release.

Running time: 1:56