Patrick Moote’s girlfriend not only rejected his marriage proposal during a sporting event in front of the entire audience but she also told him something a man never wants to hear from their girlfriend: His penis was too small. This sent a Patrick on a soul-searching mission with his friend and director Brian Spitz, to find out if size really matters in the documentary Unhung Hero, which made its Milwaukee premiere last week at the Milwaukee Film Festival.

Throughout the film, Patrick travels the world. He visits North Korea, Papa New Guinea and various parts of the United States. He visits sex museums, doctors, celebrities, sex shops, and people with near back-alley methods to help him solve his unfortunate and embarrassing problem. He takes an abundance of Extenze, some hands on techniques, visits a Korean doctor that specializes in surgery of penis enlargement, spends quality time with a witch doctor that prays and summons good spirits to help him and a man in Papa New Guinea that specializes in injections that are supposedly able to help any man grow a couple extra inches.

In one of the highlights of the film, he visits a doctor’s office in the United States where he’s examined to see where he falls in relation to the statistics of other men with similar problems. The camera stands outside the door as the doctor calmly talks to him. One is able to easily fill in the blanks as the doctor says, “Well, a handful is all you need.”

Patrick later finds himself in Papa New Guinea in a hotel room with some strangers he had met earlier in the day. One of the gentlemen had a liquid that was known to help the male genitalia increase in size by uncomfortable injection. The gentleman pulls out a syringe, attaches the intimidating needle and explains how many injections that would have to be made. All I could think of during that moment was how unsanitary it all seemed. The gentleman did not wear gloves and where did he make the liquid substance that he was going to inject into Patrick’s penis? The entire thing made me extremely nervous.

As he continues his journey, he lifts weights with his penis in North Korea where he also witnesses a man lift a couple hundred pounds of weights with his genitalia.  This unnatural method is supposed to make things stronger, but the camera does catch a glimpse of the Korean man’s disfigured southern region, and trust me, it was horrific.

Also while in Korea, Patrick inquires about a surgery that is supposed to help him “cure” his problem. The doctor is polite enough to let him view a similar procedure prior to him going through with the surgery. The camera shows the surgery, which naturally disturbs Patrick, the sound guy and the audience. I could actually pin point the exact moment the entire audience cringed, especially the males who were equally as disturbed.

There are questions asked that everyone wants answered, scenes in which filming should not have been allowed yet they filmed anyway and a new outlook on the male sex organ. Throughout the film, you painfully suffer and struggle along with Patrick as he doubts the methods and second-guesses himself and his journey.

Though Unhung Hero is based and focused solely on male genitalia, it contains a powerful message of accepting one’s self and coming to terms with things you do not have control over. It is a comedic glimpse into Patrick’s personal life and makes one wonder if size really does matter after all.

Rating: 9/10