We were excited to sit in the President’s box at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee when Sen. JD Vance gave his acceptance speech.

That evening, we noticed a woman sitting in the front row who we didn’t recognize. Imagine our surprise when he introduced her as his mother, Beverly Vance, who is now ten years free from heroin addiction. We all applauded her, and it was deeply emotional to see her on stage with the rest of the family after his speech.

When Vance’s wife Usha Chilukuri Vance introduced him, it was an interesting moment for everyone watching at the convention and at home. Usha Vance is a summa cum laude graduate of Yale University. She earned her master’s degree in philosophy and early modern history at Clare College, Cambridge in England. She was also editor of the Yale Law Reivew before graduating from Yale Law School. While at Yale, she also taught American history as a part of a Yale program at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China.

To say Usha Vance is impressive understates just how well JD Vance married (as he himself admits).

JD Vance’s acceptance speech was solid. It was personal and policy-oriented. His description of his love for his grandmother, Mamaw as he called her, was especially touching.

We left the convention that night feeling good about President Donald Trump’s choice of a running mate. Then the propaganda media went to work taking bits and pieces of interviews from his past and trying to make him unacceptable to moderate Americans.

We were curious about who the real JD Vance was. At one level, this was going to be a complicated process. After all, JD Vance has had three last names. He was born James Donald Bowman. When his mother divorced and remarried, he became James David Hamel (preserving JD as his name). At Yale Law School, he legally changed his name to Vance in honor of his grandparents.

Obviously, someone who has had three different names has had a complicated life and equally complicated emotions.

We decided that we had to spend some time getting a better understanding of this complex personality who was confronting a hostile national press and a distorted version of who he is.

So, we watched “Hillbilly Elegy” to learn about his childhood and family experience. “Hillbilly Elegy” is a remarkable movie based on JD Vance’s own memoir. We have been told the book is even more powerful (and apparently hundreds of thousands of copies have been sold since his nomination). But for the moment, our schedules confined us to the movie which had become the No. 2 viewed film on Netflix almost overnight.

The movie, produced in 2020, is remarkably well done. That was no surprise because director Ron Howard is one of the best of his generation. All his work has a quality of excellence in lighting, cinematography, script, and music. “Hillbilly Elegy” is no exception.

The movie tells the compelling story of a confused young man buffeted by a wide range of events beyond his control. Glenn Close was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress for her extraordinary portrayal of Mamaw. She expertly played someone who had endured the Great Depression, the collapse of the local economy, and a series of family traumas. Strength and wisdom marked Mamaw’s life, and Close portrayed it brilliantly.

Amy Adams may have been even more powerful portraying JD Vance’s mother. Watching her in the movie feels as though she is living the scenes, not just acting in them. Much like Frank Sinatra in “The Man with the Golden Arm,” Adams portrays the [family] agony of heroin addiction and the things people will do to feed it.

Freida Pinto plays a decisive role as Usha Vance. You can understand why JD Vance and his wife are bound so closely by their shared experience. Her total support of JD Vance as he tried to support his mother while also pursuing his own future in law school was remarkable.

We believe that viewing “Hillbilly Elegy” will give you an entirely different understanding of JD Vance – and a much deeper appreciation of his commitment to Americans who have been left behind and the communities that have been abandoned.

For more commentary from Callista and Newt Gingrich, click here where this column first appeared.