Unsung Hero
Anyone interested in for KING & COUNTRY or the Christian pop genre would probably find more meaning in “Unsung Hero” than anyone else. For everyone else, it’s a generically well-intentioned story about overcoming obstacles and the importance of family.
And what a family it is. The giant Aussie brood at the heart of this movie provides both the reason for telling this story and the behind-the-scenes apparatus to tell it. Joel Smallbone, one half of the singing duo with brother Luke, co-wrote and co-directed with Richard L. Ramsey, also starring as their father David Smallbone a music promoter who moved his pregnant wife and six kids from Sydney to Nashville in the early 1990s with dreams of making it big in America (a younger actor, Diesel La Torraca, plays Joel as a child with an innate yearning to perform.) Stick around through the credits and you’ll see various clan members pop up in minor supporting roles throughout.
But this isn’t a music biopic or an origin story either though much of the plot revolves around older sister Rebecca striving to secure a record contract with her angelic voice that could save them all financially. (She does; she becomes Grammy winner Rebecca St. James; for KING & COUNTRY has also won multiple Grammys.) This is, as the title indicates, a salute to whoever holds things together when everything falls apart: mom Helen Smallbone (played by Daisy Betts), who radiates hopefulness and authenticity. “Unsung Hero” traces the ups and downs of the Smallbones’ struggles to make ends meet in an unfamiliar country but Helen’s resilience and her faith provide a consistent thread. The casting of Kirrilee Berger as Rebecca is especially effective because she so closely resembles Betts, which deepens our belief in their mother daughter bond.
We know these good looking, talented people are going to be just fine even before they set foot in their local church and meet the big-hearted neighbors who will rally around them in times of need. It’s very much designed to be affirming for the Christian audience it’s aimed at, and it’s somewhat predictable from a storytelling perspective.
But what is surprising is that there are actual moments of raw emotion within the formulaic direction and episodic script. People get ugly. Pride gets in the way. Having dragged his family halfway around the world to an empty rental house, with job prospects falling through left and right, David is depressed and resentful. He takes it out on the kind hearted fellow churchgoer (Lucas Black) whom he feels has been too generous along with his perky wife, played by Hallmark Channel and Great American Family mainstay Candace Cameron Bure. Helen even explodes at David at one point in a rare display of anger.
“Unsung Hero” could have used more of that emotional honesty. But ultimately it has to deliver a sweeping uplift that’s digestible for all ages so it tends to stay on the surface. And apart from mom and Rebecca, the characterization is woefully thin, the other kids are all kind of a perky blur.
The role must have been difficult, given this context Joel Smallbone is a solid screen presence, but his decisions behind the camera on Ramsey feel pretty uninspired.
Still, the costume design of the ‘90s is on point so many terrible sweaters! and it’s hard to find fault with a soundtrack that features secular pop staples like Jesus Jones and Seal, however lyrically on the nose they might be considered. What “Unsung Hero” does for the most part is what David Smallbone himself did not do; it avoids taking chances.
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