Drama / Christian
2024 / 112 minutes
Rating: 8/10
This is a bio-pic on the Smallbone family, and if you haven’t heard of them, you’ve probably still heard their music. The oldest daughter was famous in the 1990s and early 2000s under her professional name, Rebecca St. James, and two of her younger brothers, Joel and Luke, are making it big now in their band For King & Country. This will have some instant appeal if you know any of those names. But even if you don’t, there’s lots to love here.
The story starts back in Australia, in the early 1990s. The unsung hero of the title is matriarch Helen Smallbone who is shown, in the opening minutes, living the good life: a big house, large family, her supportive parents close by, and a husband, David, who loves her, and loves his job as a concert promoter for Christian acts touring Australia. But, of course, something bad has to happen. Hoping to score a home run with an Amy Grant tour, David over-extends their finances. Then Australia’s economy takes a massive downturn and by the time Amy showed up to sing, no one has money for luxuries like concert tickets. At tour’s end David is a half million dollars in debt, and with no job prospects. Who wants to hire a failed promoter?
With employment impossible in his homeland, David takes a job offer in America. and arrives with his wife and five kids (and number 6 on the way), and his last dime.
And then his job offer falls through.
That leaves David under all sorts of pressure. While every man who’s lost a job will empathize, you can’t help but feel even more for Helen, who is now suddenly poor, practically homeless, and miles away from her extended family…and none of it is her doing.
So how are they going to get out of this mess? By sticking together, overcoming any pride that might still have left. They can’t be above scrubbing toilets or accepting help from their local church; God hasn’t given them any room for that sort of sin.
The rise, fall, and rise again story has been told many times before, so what sets this apart is that it is true. Helen might not be a great fictional character – a little too levelheaded to be realistic – but as a real-life mom and wife, she is an inspiration. She just keeps moving forward. At one point, she shares the story of how Alexander the Great landed on his enemies’ shores and then burnt his own ships. Why’d he do it? So they’d have no way to retreat. It was onward to either death or triumph, with no other options. At their lowest low, Helen stops in at a local park with a playground pirate ship. Right before the children pretend to storm the structure their mom issues a challenge that takes this game of pretend and applies it to their own troubles.
“Before we attack there’s one thing left to do.”
“What is it?” one of the kids asks.
“We burn the ships – all of them.”
“Even ours? How do we get back?”
“We don’t. It’s going to be dangerous. And scary. And it’s going to be hard. So hard that you want to go back. But if you know that you can go back, you will. And giving up, giving in, it’s not an option. We’ve got to fight our way forward! We have to win.”
Caution
This courage is inspirational, but is also a bit of troubling point too. This same “no retreat” slogan could also be pigheadedness in different circumstances. Shucks, in these circumstances a full reversal sure seemed in order – heading back to Australia might have been the wisest and best option. That said, I think what the producers were probably trying to encourage Christians to do is follow God with no retreat in mind.
The only other caution regards the Smallbones’ first Sunday at an American church. As they come in, a woman, off camera is making announcements for upcoming congregational events, and then begins reading the Bible text. Is this a female pastor? That seems an odd possibility, especially considering the time period. Or does this church have members take turns reading the Bible text for the congregation before the pastor then starts preaching? It’s odd, and thankfully brief.
Conclusion
This is a film about togetherness – family first, but also the church. In keeping with that togetherness, the Smallbone family seem to have all participated in the making of Unsung Hero, with For King & Country’s Joey Smallbone playing his own dad, David, and co-directing (along with Richard Ramsey who also did The Song), and other siblings show up in small bit parts.
Unsung Here has got some superb performances, a little bit of music (though less than you might expect consider the family involved), and even some grit, presenting David in far from airbrushed fashion, with his short-comings for all to see. I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up being the best Christian film of 2024.
