Starring Jennifer Garner. Rated G

Another year, another movie in the “heaven tourism” genre.

Two years ago, Heaven Is for Real told the story of a father’s efforts to rationalize the stories his son told him about meeting God and Jesus during a near-death experience. Now the same producers have made Miracles From Heaven, in which a devout Christian mother’s faith is shaken when her daughter is diagnosed with a rare and very painful digestive disorder.

The first hour or so is actually a fairly compelling look at the despair that Texas mom Christy Beam (Jennifer Garner, crying up a storm) feels as she pleads with receptionists and jumps every queue in an attempt to get her daughter Anna (Kylie Rogers) better treatment. It’s only in the latter portion of the movie that matters come to a head as Anna falls into a hollowed-out tree and needs to be rescued—a sequence that is very much in the wheelhouse of director Patricia Riggen (who helmed the Chilean-miners movie The 33).

And if you’ve seen any of this film’s trailers, or even just its title, then you know that Anna isn’t killed by the fall, but instead rebounds with tales of her visit to the world beyond.

The film’s style is a tad uneven. Moments of silent introspection, as when Anna is drawn to an abstract painting at an art gallery, are juxtaposed with Christian-rock montages and product placements for Angry Birds and Sony Pictures cartoons. Queen Latifah also pops up to provide some sketchy comic relief as a waitress who befriends the Beams.

And while the computer-generated heaven sequence isn’t as kitschy as it could have been, it feels strangely superfluous. Rogers, 12, is very convincing in the scenes where Anna suffers, but even she can’t figure out how to talk about heaven like she’s actually been there.