Samantha (Lynn Collins) loves Billy (Diego
Klattenhoff). Because Billy is awesome.
I mean in the history of awesome, righteous, stand up guys
that have shown up in movies, you are going to be hard pressed
to find somebody with the combination of spirituality, beauty,
purity of heart, and all around good guy-ness than Billy
possesses. Thus as this movie 'Unconditional' starts,
when we see Samantha, with a loaded gun, go to the spot where
Billy was tragically murdered some years back, her intention
to take her own life right there on that spot, we were
thinking that maybe Sam should get it together. But we
didn't know Billy yet. I'd almost marry Billy, even
though I'm a dude, because that's how righteously awesome
Billy was.
Samantha is broken out of this suicidal stupor when a young
girl named Keisha (Gabriella Phillips) is hit by a car on this
rainy night. Samantha takes Keisha to the hospital,
escorted by Keisha's older brother Macon (Kwesi Boakye) and by
the chances of chances, runs into Joe (Michael Ealy).
Sam and Joe were best friends as kids, though they drifted
apart as many do for no particular reason, but Joe is the
caretaker of these kids and just for a moment Sam has found a
slight diversion from the overwrought grief she experiences
with every single moment of her waking life.
Now Joe is a pretty awesome dude too. Maybe not quite
Billy Awesome, but Joe is a righteous brother in his own
right. The kids in the downtrodden neighborhood he lives
in call him 'Papa Joe' as Joe works with Denise (Danielle
Lewis), a community outreach organizer in providing for the
children of the neighborhood. And Joe does all of this
with two bum kidneys. Joe seems to forget that he has
two bum kidneys as he often pushes his dialysis treatments off
until the last possible moment, but that's Joe.
The good thing is that these kids and Joe
have given Samantha a new lease on life. At least a
little bit, in the sense she doesn't want to kill herself
anymore, but she's still depressed as all get out. And
then she sees Anthony (Cedric Pendleton) who Samantha is
CONVINCED is the man who they never caught that killed her
husband. Absolutely convinced. So convinced that
she's kind of forgotten about the good will that the kids and
Joe have brought to her life, and she's dedicated her life to
bringing this dude to justice all by herself if
necessary. Unless… you know… he's not the guy. But
he has to be the guy. Right? I mean he wears a
hoodie.
Samantha's obsession with this guy only worsens, Joe's kidney
problem only worsens, and it's all going to come to a head
until Samantha hears something she needed to hear. She
needed to hear it a long time ago to be honest with you, but
she's hearing it now and we think everything is going to be
all right.
It's going to be difficult for me to crap on writer / director
Brent McCorkle's film 'Unconditional'… even though it often
invites derision at frequent turns during its running
time… but it is so earnest and sweet and well meaning
and totally unapologetic about all of this, that ultimately it
all works.
It's also competent. I mention this because I have seen
my fair share of Christian themed movies which often come off
as amateurish and have production values that are lacking
despite the well meaning content of the film, but this is not
an issue with 'Unconditional' which possesses a very talented
and seasoned cast, and has a director who clearly understands
the fundamentals of filmmaking and this is something we don't
take for granted. And for a Christian movie, for those
of you out there who tend to avoid Christian themed films,
admittedly the themes are light, in that it is not preachy,
but leaning more towards faith born out of experience.
Now the way the plot hums along, there are contrivances and
clichés and elements on a level of sentimentality that
seems to be trying to forcibly wring the tears from our eyes,
and the characters in this film dangerously straddle the line
from being real characters to just caricatures of actual
people, but casting saves this from actually taking
place. Michael Ealy and Lynn Collins are able to
effectively infuse life into these characters so that they
come off as more than just damaged nice guy trying to help
people and the sad pathetic woman in need of saving. If
you had to focus on one thing that 'Unconditional' has going
for it, it is its cast, from top to bottom, putting in solid
work to bring their characters to life.
It is a melodrama, sometimes overwrought, there are
circumstances and coincidences and narrative crutches that
McCorkle leans on once or twice too often, this we really
can't deny. But at the end of it all, 'Unconditional' is
a good movie that left me with a good feeling after the final
credits rolled, and there aren't a lot of movies out there
that can say this.
