The film, though, doesn’t focus on the family’s successes but instead on their battle in the early 1990s to find joy in the middle of trials. It stars Daisy Betts (Last Resort, Chicago Fire) as Helen Smallbone and Joel Smallbone (Journey to Bethlehem, Priceless) as his father, David. Candace Cameron Bure (Full House, My Christmas Hero) and Lucas Black (Birthright Outlaw, NCIS New Orleans) portray a neighborly couple.

“God redeems our story, no matter how hard it gets,” St. James told Crosswalk Headlines. “And I think a lot of people are discouraged in our world today. They’re discouraged about marriage, they’re discouraged about family life, they’re discouraged about faith. A lot of people, I think, need hope and need to be reminded that God is the great redeemer of our story and of our life. I think that’s why people are responding to the film the way that they are.”

The film’s title gets its name from Helen Smallbone, the “unsung hero” who worked behind the scenes to encourage her husband and children. The film depicts David Smallbone as battling depression when his career falls and, later, when his father dies and he does not have the money to travel back to Australia. Despite their hardships, the family finds joy.

Family, she said, is “something to treasure.” St. James noted that the film ends with a paraphrased quote from Mother Teresa: “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.”

“My main dream has always been to be a wife and a mom,” she told Crosswalk Headlines. “And so even in all my nearly two decades of music — first time around, and I’m doing some music again now — but that was my dream was to live what my mom had lived and I’m living it now I, I have a husband and three kids and I pinch myself that God gave me that dream at 33. And I started having kids at 36. He redeemed my story.”

David Smallbone was a successful Christian music promoter in Australia who moved his family to the U.S. when he faced financial hardship.

Soon, though, the family’s big dreams were dashed.

“We were raking and mowing our own rental house yard. And people kind of noticed and just started asking us to help at their house too. So we all contributed to the raking of the leaves around that time. … It promoted this work ethic as a family … this kind of commitment to working hard [and] pulling together.”

Unsung Hero is rated PG for thematic elements.

Image Credit: Lionsgate