Cinematic memories can be a complex creative endeavor. Cinema is a collaborative medium and memories require a certain popularity of the author’s creation. Without this personal reflection, we can sink into murky and confusing territory. It is in this area that the new movie “Unsung Hero” exists, presented as a “For King”
If you haven’t met Christian pop duo For King yet
“Unsung Hero” is co-written and co-directed by Joel Smallbone (with Richard L. Ramsey) and also stars in the film as his own father, who directed For King’s music career.
Therefore, “Unsung Hero” is like a much more expensive extension of home videos with camcorders serving as a recurring motif. It’s not just a musical biopic or a family drama, it’s a presentation of a family story told and embodied through one’s own circle of relatives. A valid effort, to be sure, but a vital context when we consider painting as a cultural product.
Joel Smallbone is a horny actor, though it’s a bit distracting to play the role of his own father (he described the party as a “therapy session”). Joel is also a character in the film, as a child (Diesel La Torraca), while Daisy Betts plays Helen, the matriarch of Smallbone and mother of Joel. Helen is, of course, the unsung heroine of this story, the center and backbone of the circle of relatives who insist on keeping them together as David makes one last attempt to make it in the music industry in Nashville. Betts is the emotional center of this film, with her character being tireless in her determination, keeping her spirits high as David’s dreams are slowly crushed.
The family of beautiful Australians arrives in the U. S. They are living in the U. S. without a piece of furniture in their rented home, and nestle on beds of clothes as they get up with the help of a couple from their church (Lucas Black and Candace Cameron Bure). They clean houses and gardens, cut coupons, and reluctantly settle for the charity that comes to them from David.
As David struggles with the suffocation of his dreams, his daughter Rebecca (Kirrilee Berger) is just beginning to embrace her musical aspirations, but she won’t be able to pursue them until her father overcomes the deep wound of being rejected in the industry. that she perceives the recommendation made to her by her own father, James (Terry O’Quinn), back in Australia, that her circle of relatives does not prevent her from getting what she wants. On the contrary, they are the way.
“Unsung Hero” follows a predictable narrative trail of struggle and salvation, but it’s not a classical music biopic: It doesn’t start with a recording contract, it ends with one. The focus is on his struggles to get that recording contract, which is obviously what filmmaker Joel Smallbone is worried about. It’s not the success, the Grammys, the stadium concerts, but the way they stayed together, triumphed, allowed others to dream, all thanks to his mother, who never allowed David’s demanding situations to get in the way of her children’s minds.
It is a humble story, capable of inspiring with its undeniable message of perseverance. But the film itself, as an artistic product, is limited in its scope of observation, because the filmmaker has no distance from the material. Smallbone is a wonderful actor. However, along with Ramsey, he is a limited filmmaker. His visual taste is mediocre at best, and the narrative lacks the kind of introspection that could drive this project. As it stands, “Unsung Hero” feels more like a product of a band than an insightful portrait of their circle of relatives.
Katie Walsh is a critic for the Tribune News Service.
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