When I saw that Grace Unplugged, starring AJ Michalka and produced by Coram Deo Studios, was voted by Pluggedin.com as the best Christian movie of 2013 it got my attention. My family and I watched it a few nights ago and everyone seemed to be enjoying it. I know I did.
Grace Unplugged is the story of an 18-year-old girl named Grace who has grown up singing praise music in church with her Dad, a former pop star. Grace gets restless to spread her wings and jumps at a chance to show her talent to a Hollywood music producer. In defiance of her Dad, Grace is taken under the producer’s wing and given the star treatment. From there, the story focuses on Grace’s choice of whether or not to ride the wave of stardom that’s filled with sex and booze and dishonesty, or does she return to her Christian roots and lose her new career.
AJ Michalka shines as Grace. She is very believable as the reluctant sheep among wolves. I found the story to be a well made cautionary tale for any wannabe Taylor Swifts or American Idol contestants. I’m sure it was overly simplified, but I’m willing to bet that young pretty girls with talent are treated very much the way Grace was in the movie. Everyone around her, who was supposedly there to help her, worked under the assumption that Grace would hide her faith and begin to use her body and sex to get noticed and ride to the top.
I fully recommend Grace Unplugged as an enjoyable character driven movie. The Christian message is worked in comfortably toward the end and feels like a logical conclusion to Grace’s dilemma and doesn’t feel the least bit forced. Anyone looking for a big budget movie about a girl’s rise to stardom will be disappointed as Grace Unplugged does look like a smaller budget movie made for DVD. But, if you know that going in, you’ll have a great time with this movie. It made a great family night for us.