Grace Unplugged

Gracie Trey (AJ Michalka) performs with her protective father Johnny Trey (James Denton) at church. She's 18 and desperate to be a music star. Johnny's old manager Frank 'Mossy' Mostin (Kevin Pollak) shows up one day and tells him that his old song has became a viral sensation. Mossy offers him a new shot but he rejects it out of hand. He doesn't want his old problematic life. He's happy with his wife Michelle Trey (Shawnee Smith), church, and family. Gracie has a different idea. Quentin (Michael Welch) is the company intern.

An easy fix would be having the mom there accompanying her. I guess that easy fix is not what the movie is looking for. It's fine for the Christian crowd who sees Hollywood as a den of iniquity. An even easier fix for the movie would be to make Johnny a single parent. The whole movie has a hesitant feel. It's written like a weak melodrama although it could be worst. It's too hesitant to be too dark. It's too light to do anything risky. It seems to be more against the superficiality of commercial capitalism than anything else. It's singing to a certain choir.

What a great story! A girl fighting her dad for some space to grow up and be herself. She is struck with the awesome idea to fill her dad's old shoes in the music business when he turns down the request of an old producer friend. Not knowing the extent of the commitment, she gets caught in a moral dilemma. Some of the scenes made me squirm. If you are a Christian who has ever put a bushel over your candle during a tense moment, you will relate to this! It could be described as the prodigal daughter movie. The cast was perfect. Also a great message of comfort to parents to commend their children to God on that day when it's time for them to leave the nest. God is already at the place where they are going. Trust God!

Overwrought, heavy-handed, predictable, and kind of boring. It has a good, clean story line but just too formulaic to have a lasting impact. The music was good and the movie looked good but the characters had no depth. There was a lot of potential here but nothing really was developed for the plot to catch my interest. Too bad because I really wanted to like this film. It also didn't get too preachy which can turn off some people. I actually would have preferred more doctrine worked into the story. There were some key details that were skipped which would have helped the flow of the movie. Great performance turned in by Kevin Pollak, he is the main reason to keep watching during the many slow parts. AJ Michalka shows some promise as Grace but is handcuffed by the terrible script.

This movie had lots of potential to be a great Christian film, but all in all, the movie is just Meh. The story isn't the worst but we've already heard of this story before so it isn't very original with that. Also, some of the characters can get on your nerves like the extremely wimpy guy who just won't shut up. The main character isn't the worst, in fact, i find her pretty likable it's just that she can be annoying sometimes with what she says and her attitude can make her pretty unlikeable at some times. The good things about it are mainly that grace's dad, is well developed and you can feel for him but sadly, he doesn't have a lot of screen-time so you can't really connect with that character. Also the story, although predictable, is sweet and is a good lesson to all Christians. One thing which i just don't get is why we hardly get to hear any of grace's original songs. We just see her working on them while background violins play instead of her. overall, this movie isn't bad, it's just that there's nothing truly memorable about how this movie is.

The main problem with Christian films is the cheese factor. Movies that take a good quality moral message and then somehow cheese it up with either corny writing, or sloppy directing, or phony performances are starting to become a thing of the past. Once The Passion of the Christ demonstrated that BRILLIANT films could convey morality, the race was on.

Grace Unplugged has some good performances, as well as a heartwarming story. You feel for the characters. You get pulled into the struggles of the father/daughter relationship. You want Grace to follow her dreams. You really vest yourself as an audience member.

That would not be possible if the Christian-cheese factor were prevalent.

I have to admit that there were a couple of moments (without including any spoilers) that the cheese crept in. However, overall- without PROFANITY, NUDITY, GRATUITOUS DRUGS/SIMULATED SEX/SUGGESTIVE ANYTHING, this movie managed to really work. The cast had chemistry. The story pulled heartstrings. It was truly a success.