Unconditional

“Unconditional” is an amazing heart and mind challenging film, able to affect relationship and racial reconciliation. I hope it makes its way into the darker corners of our society, where doors have long been closed due to misunderstanding, bitterness and hatred.

It’s 2013. Do you know where your racial mores are? We do grow up believing in a better future, don’t we? I know I did. I believed that racial tension was a fading part of the redneck past. I believed, not because of some great faith or because I held out some strong hope, no, no—I believed flatly that racial problems were beneath the world I was growing up in. Sure, I brushed up against the occasional attitude which was either light or heavy with racial bias, but I saw it among the dullest and most insecure of my peers. Hence it didn’t bother me too much. I was taught to be color blind, and I value this way of thinking. Color blindness was present. It was fact. It was sacrosanct. Racism would be a thing of the past.

That’s not the world we live in today though, is it? The subject of race gets ‘front and center’ attention more than daily. Admittedly, our cultures have not purged themselves of the sin of racism. How are we doing on other sins, by the way? Anyway—this movie has more meat on this subject, more of something worth listening to than a thousand politicians, a fist full of gangster rap bands and two blathering talk show hosts combined. I flat out love it.

The performances are wonderful. Every major role in this film was cast with genuine faces, genuine smiles, addressing sincere subjects.

“Unconditional” goes way beyond feel-good movies. I will give it credit for being one of the most believable movies ever to deal with American cultural misunderstandings and relationship reconciliation. This movie is about love—the real stuff that involves sacrifice, discomfort, covering of shame and the measure of tolerance America really needs—not to tolerate sin and cultural erosion but to tolerate differences and work out misunderstandings.

Business as usual in Hollywood has never made such quality and believability on these subjects.

On the level of ‘concerns’: This film has a little violence, but it is not overdrawn, just a few short parts of the story. There is more blood resulting from medical issues than violence. I don’t recall any cursing; if there was any, it was extremely subtle and pertained to a mischievous boy. Murder is a theme in the story more than once—a reality for some people. In two short scenes the main actress appears in a night gown, mostly covered, but her upper chest shows a bit.

I highly recommend “Unconditional.”

Violence: Moderate / Profanity: None / Sex/Nudity: Minor

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.