Unsung Hero

“If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.”

Powerful, personal and inspiring, Unsung Hero is a the touching and triumphant riches-to-rags-to-riches story of the Smallbone family and their faith-fuelled fight to overcome adversity and pursue their creative dreams, with hefty amounts of heart-tugging emotion and a soundtrack filled with some of the best contemporary Christian music. 

Discussion Points:

So often faith-based/Christian films come off as cringey, tone-deaf, preachy and schmaltzy. They can be inaccessible for non-believers, and an echo chamber for the faithful. Elsewhere in film, music biopics are often cliched, and play out like you’re reading a Wikipedia article with no actual character depth. Thankfully, Unsung Hero doesn’t fall victim to these genre trappings. Instead actor-writer-director-producer Joel Smallbone has crafted an intimate portrait of his parents story of struggle and faith, that led to his sisters, brothers and own career successes. Playing his own father, Smallbone captures the grief, pride, drive and desires of his dad as the film steadily works through much of his own disappointment, failures and shame. None of which are cause for his loving wise wife to abandon him. Helen Smallbone is the titular unsung hero. A powerful mother and wife who served her family and led them through loss and difficulties by keeping their eyes up and hearts full. Daisy Betts delivers an incredible performance anchored in deeply felt maternal insight and emotion, as she instinctively listens to, cares, and provides for her flock of creatively gifted children. Each child has a unique story, but the main focus is given to Becca, the eldest daughter, who would go on to become the Grammy award winning Rebecca St. James, with small teases towards the future career of her younger brothers Joel and Luke, who would become the Grammy award winning pop duo For King & Country. With music at its roots, the film features some fantastic performances connected to key moments of growth and triumph. Ultimately, Unsung Hero is an amazingly powerful film and testament to the power of faith and family, and the love that unites above all strife to bring hope and joy for each new day.