Unconditional (2012)

As Good As It Gets

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

This is a Christian themed movie but you don't hear much about religion until the end when the main character overcomes her pain by hearing about the final moments of her husband and finds her faith again. So people who are not into religion will not be bothered by it. People who are into religion will definitely get a positive message.It also has a background story based on a true story. About Papa Joe who started a support for children in poor community who may not have a father and have him as a father figure. A nice message, awareness and a way to attract people to help the actual cause. It is well portrayed by Michael Ealy who gets the viewer engaged in the topic. The child actors who as I saw haven't done much other work also did a great job.The main story is mainly about fighting the pain. The ending twist is pretty good. A bit cheesy most of the time but it works well.

It's about a girl who lost her husband, she was wanting to find the killer. One night she was at the same place where her husband died and heard someone get hit, she goes and see what was going on and see a little girl in the middle of the road. She that the little girl and the boy to the hospital and awhile shes there she meets her old friend for school. She goes to the little girl house and she sees this guy and that she thinks its the person who killed her husband. One day she goes in his house and starts looking around, she hears him come in and she runs out before he sees her. She wants to know if its the killer but she has no clue that his is it. I like this movie because, it had a good meaning. It showed she pain and how sad she was. It shows how far people will go to find something out, they want to be right so they do things that they should've do. It's good at showing friendship, and how important it is, and how helpful a friend can be. They help you in so many ways, having a friend can help you get out of that mindset of " I have to know.". I liked the music, because it showed the emotion,and what they were feeling. It could be sad, happy, or the music could tell you something is about to happen. Its good at showing there past and what they went through. I like the characters, I really like Papa Joe because he takes in the neighbor kids and makes sure there grades are good to pass, then there grades are good they get food or candy as a award. Sam is a great person, she helps Joe with the kids, and the little girl, (the little girl doesn't talk) she saved. She likes Sam. Sam takes the kids to her farm and Sam told the little girl that the horses are good at keeping secrets. Before they left the little girl told the horses a secret. After them going to the farm, the little girl started to talk. The movie is really good, it might make you cry but it's worth it.

Unconditional is a dramatic film based on a true story revolving around the struggle of the main character Sam (Lynn Collins), and her struggle with life after her husband Billy (Diego Klattenhoff) was murdered and robbed in an alley. Sam struggled to fight back her inner demons and attempted to commit suicide when all of the sudden she heard a scream coming from a nearby street. After approaching the street, Sam sees a little girl named Keisha (Gabriella Phillips) struck by a car while her brother Macon (Kwesi Boakye) was screaming in fear that she might not be alive. Sam rushes to the hospital with the little girl and she survived with minor injuries. It was later found out that Keisha and Macon were roaming the streets late at night to steal food due to their extreme hunger. While at the hospital, Sam is re-united with her childhood best friend Joe. I personally love the scene where they re-united and the audience could see the surprise in the actor's eyes. Joe tells Sam they should hangout and catch up sometime soon. A few days later, Sam goes to visit Joe where she discovers he helps mentor kids in the hood to prevent them from making mistakes in life. The kids grew on Sam and she finally found hope in life. The kids were invited to Sam's farm to meet her horse, dance, eat and stay the night. Alike to Sam, Joe had a dark past. Joe was in prison for 8 years due to hacking into a bank. While in prison, Joe was stabbed with a shank. Ever since being stabbed, Joe needs a daily kidney dialysis. While at the barn, Joe collapsed in his guest room due to his kidneys failing and was immediately rushed to the hospital. The doctors stated that Joe may not survive because his body may reject the kidney transplant. There was also a possibility that Joe could die before the kidney arrives. Sam had lost her husband and she feared the worst that she could lose her best friend. Sam became full of rage and anger over her life so she went after the man who she had though killed her husband wanting revenge. Some positive things I thought about this film would be the setting. I love how the setting transitions from the worst parts of the hood to a beautiful farm and I love how it shows the reaction of the children when they get to experience nature like they never have before. I also loved the story and found it inspiring on so many levels that Sam went through the death of her husband and managed to cope with it and make herself happy. I enjoyed that the actors went from having nothing to being extremely happy. Sam was on the brink of death with depression but she found hope in life. The kids Macon and Keisha didn't have someone to look up to except for Joe but they found Sam. Everyone in the film went from a low point in their life to having a family. There are also some negative things about the film. The transition into flashbacks when Sam would think back to when her husband had been alive tended to be hard to indicate. I would be watching a scene not knowing it was even a flashback and confused on why she was talking to her husband when he had passed away. Another negative side of the film would be the mood. I feel as if the movie was sad until the ending. The movie starts off with Sam's husband dying and her trying to commit suicide then transitions into Keisha getting hit by a car and lastly transitions to Joe on his dialysis machine. Throughout the movie all the actors did was face struggles and there's a lack of happiness and hope. I loved the characters and how they fit into the movie. I was always on the edge of my seat when a character's secrets or past would get revealed. I was very surprised when I had seen that Joe had to go to prison for 8 years but he still manages to be such a positive guy. It was also nice to see that after Keisha went through her mom's death, she began to talk again after going to the farm. I enjoyed the way the actors portrayed the characters as well. Kwesi Boakye did a great job at playing Macon and acting like a bad kid and bad sibling when in reality he was a nice kid. Lynn Collins in my opinion looked like the original person the true story is based off of so she was the perfect match for the role. In my opinion I thought this was a unique movie. If it wasn't based on a true story, I'd think it was an average film that was decent but the fact that this movie is based on a true story makes it breathtaking. I enjoyed the setting and characters more than most movies I watch. If I could rate Unconditional out of 10 I'd give it a 7.5/10.

A beautiful true story was portrayed wonderfully in this film. Lessons on friendship, forgiveness, trust, hope, and so many more things were shown. It definitely made my eyes pool in both happiness and heartache. The movie showed how many kids in less fortunate areas are actually in need of some type of safe haven away from their home. Sam helping the children did as much help for them as it did her, it gave her a sense of reality and hope There were moments in the movie that particularly made you feel more and sympathize with the characters. There wasn't just one issue, everyone had to overcome something. The change in setting from the projects to an open and bright farm reflects how the characters changed in the same way. I like that Joe's house on the outside looked broken down but the inside was full of life and potential, much like the characters. The story was of course a beautiful one since it's based off a true story and they did well conveying it accurately but there were things that could have been improved on. The parts that made you sympathize with the characters were a bit dramatic and "Hollywood". The tracks throughout the entire movie were extremely cheesy and really made it hard to focus on the real story. The settings and scenery as well were beautiful but a bit unrealistic. For example, there's a scene where Sam opens a set of doors and she walks into the rain with wide stretched arms. That along with the cheesy music they played at the same time made the scene a little cringe-worthy. An applause to all the actors who played these phenomenal characters, they did an overall great job. Kwesi Boakye (Macon), Gabriella Phillips (Keisha), Tarren Mason (young Joe), and Emily Rollins(young Sam) all did a unbelievable job considering they were so young. I like that they showed scenes with young Sam and Joe, the characters really demonstrated the bond of best friends well. Michael Ealy (joe Bradford) and Lynn Collins (Samantha Crawford) did an incredible job in demonstrating love between two best friends. Lynn Collins (Sam) sometimes put a bit too much into a few scenes and made it a bit too dramatic, which is a bit off-putting. Overall the film did an impressive job in narrating the real story. The movie is filled with underlying themes of friendship, hope, and so much more. I would give it an 8.5 out of 10.