These are photos of Jennifer Garner at the Miracles From Heaven premiere in Dallas, Texas. The film is out on March 18th. She’s shown with the woman she portrays in the film, a Texas woman named Christy Beam, whose daughter was cured of a digestive disorder after falling from a tree. The family, which are devout Christians, claims it was divine intervention since the little girl had a near death experience. (I’ve heard that can be attributed to neurotransmitters and a lack of oxygen to the brain, but your beliefs may vary and that’s fine.) She also shown with DeVon Franklin, a VP of Sony Pictures (the hot guy) and Bishop T.D. Jakes, who was a producer on the film. Those two are also responsible for the film version of Heaven is For Real.

Garner just happened to start going to church a few months ago, which coincided with when she was filming this movie. She regularly gets papped with her family on Sundays going to the farmer’s market so we have a definite timeline for her church-going, and she has a ready explanation for that. She says she did it because the film inspired her:

Garner, who was born in Texas, was asked by host Jane McGarry why she wanted to do this particular movie: “Did you want to talk about faith and God?”

“I love the message in the film, and I love the message of hope,” she says. “I love how inspiring the film is. But I also really connected with Christy just from reading the book and from reading the script, and I wanted to honor what she and Annabel and the whole family went through.”

Asked if she and her children go to church, Garner said they do.

“Is that weird in Hollywood?” McGarry asked.

“You know, it did seem strange,” she replied. “I grew up going to church every Sunday of my life, and when I did move to L.A., it wasn’t something that was just part of the culture in the same way, at least in my life. But it didn’t mean that I lost who I was. But there was something about doing this film and talking to my kids about it and realizing that they were looking for the structure of church every Sunday. So it was a great gift of this film that it took us back to finding our local Methodist church and going every Sunday. It’s really sweet…

“Nobody who meets this child [the subject of the film], with her sincerity and her frank honesty and faith, would ever think for a second that this child is making anything up or is being sensational,” she says. “She is just true to the bone. That’s just who she is.

“She is an old soul,” Garner adds. “There’s something very special about her. She can be very internal and quiet, but in the next second she’s just a little girl running around and eating fettuccine Alfredo. I learned so much about this disease that when I sat down with her and she had a plate of pasta in front of her, there was a part of me that felt like, ‘You can’t eat that!’ But she’s okay; she really is. It’s a miracle.”

Although she says she doesn’t ever “put my children in peril in my mind” while acting, Garner does think that being a parent herself helps her immerse in these types of roles.

“I do think that being a mother of three has opened my heart in a way, and that helps me access that ferocity that all mothers feel for their children,” she says. “It’s not unique to me.”

Asked if she uses her faith to overcome personal challenges, Garner says, “Of course. I think that’s what it’s all about. But there’s a beautiful line in the movie that really resonates with me; Christy is having a conversation with her pastor and she says, ‘I just don’t understand. I don’t know where my faith is right now.’ She’s in the crisis of faith. And he says to her, ‘You know, everyone is going to struggle and I look at it this way: I’ve struggled with faith and I’ve struggled without it. And I’ll tell you, it’s a whole lot easier with.'”

Over the weekend, Garner and Beam attended a service at The Potter’s House Church, led by Bishop T.D. Jakes, a producer on the movie.

“I loved it,” Garner said of the experience. “I’m so jealous of the people of Dallas that they can draw from T.D. Jakes and can go every week to hear him preach.”

One message of the movie is that everything – even the little things in life – are miracles. Garner says she can relate.

[From People]

I’m of two minds on this. It could be sincere that she was inspired to go back to church by working on this film or she could have wanted to appear more churchy to this film’s target audience. Or, to borrow a phrase from Kaiser, it’s probably a little of column a) and a little of column b). This movie will probably make bank and it ties into her image as a devoted mom, which seems genuine to an extent although she certainly plays it up. It looks like complete tripe though, like total glurge. She’s not the most talented actress, I thought she was miscast on Dallas Buyer’s Club, and this is probably a smart career move for her.