United States of America

DramaMusic

AustraliaImmigrantBiographyBased on true storyFamily1980s1990sChristian musicChristian filmChristian faith

Joel Smallbone, Richard Ramsey

Joel Smallbone, Daisy Betts, Kirrilee Berger, Jonathan Jackson, Candace Cameron Bure, Terry O'Quinn

Joel Smallbone, Richard Ramsey

for KING & COUNTRY, WTA Media, Curb Records, Radiate Films, Kingdom Story Company, Candy Rock Entertainment

Taglines: One family's journey from Down Under to center stage.

When David Smallbone's successful music company collapses, he moves his family from Australia to the United States in search of a brighter future. With nothing more than their six children, their suitcases, and their love of music, David and his pregnant wife Helen set out to rebuild their lives from the ground up. Based on a remarkable true story, a mum's faith stands against all odds; and inspires her husband and children to hold onto theirs.

Reviews:

Author: Geronimo1967
The Smallbone family live a comfortable life, paid for by the music promotional skills of dad David (Joel Smallbone - real life son) but when a tour he backs to the hilt goes a bit wonky, they find themselves broke. Nobody in Australia will employ him, so he heads to Nashville on the promise of a new opportunity. This is where I was glad he wasn't promoting me. He sells up, then drags his wife (Daisy Betts) and family of six children (with another on the way) all that way only for it to fall through at the last minute. He causes all this upheaval and uncertainty for his family without making sure he had a contract before he left? Hmmm - maybe he won't be troubling the brains trust? Anyway, reduced to sleeping on the floor of their rented home and eking out a living doing odd jobs, gardening and cleaning the toilets for their fairly wealthy neighbours, they manage to get by - until Christmas looms. The kids have expectations and the parents are skint. A chance meeting with one of their new friends (Candace Cameron Bure) in a supermarket might provide a solution to that, indeed to a great many of their problems - but he has pride, and that now proves to be quite an obstacle not just for him, but to the potential career of his daughter Rebecca (Kirrilee Berger) who can hold a tune but can find no way of exploiting it - despite the obvious options on their doorstep. Underpinned by their profound Christian faith, they have no lack of optimism but they just need the lucky break! It's a biopic of sorts so no jeopardy, just a journey - and one that I found pretty unremarkable. The wooden as a washboard Lucas Black - sporting way, way, too much beard - makes the occasional appearance as their wealthy, song-writing, friend but the rest of the acting is pretty mediocre as the drama takes a rather traditionally daytime and sentimentally charged approach to family drama tinged with religion and luck (good or bad). Quite what it's doing in a cinema is anyone's guess - I saw it by myself, and after about twenty minutes, I felt it belonged on the television, with lots of soft focus and rousing strings.