Sound of Freedom

Grade: C

Sound of Freedom ends with a “special message” from star Jim Caviezel, where he thanks us for seeing the movie, says it took 5 years to come out (made in 2018), displays a QR code on the screen where you can pay it forward and buy tickets so other people can see it, and gets teary-eyed as he ends with a prominent line from the film. “God’s children are not for sale.” It’s at least as melodramatic as the movie itself, and I call it The Passion of the Caviezel.

This is one of the most talked about movies of the year – finally coming out after many roadblocks. Not a gigantic budget (you can say that again), not much promotion other than word of mouth, and still hanging in there in theaters amidst the bomb, the bombshell, the turtles, and the impossible mission. Its heart is in the right place, which makes it unfortunate that it plays like a treacly, soapy, boring feature-length episode of an obscure show on a less-popular channel. The message is pretty easy, obvious, low-hanging fruit: human sex trafficking is bad, and the safety of children is important. Yeah, I think we’re all on board with that. What’s next – a movie about how breathing air is good?

It feels like a film you would be made to watch in school, like I predict Jesus Revolution will be. It’s akin to a sub-level to a movie – somehow not feeling like a real one. Based on a true story, Caviezel plays Tim Ballard, who leaves his job in Homeland Security 10 months before he would have earned a pension. He wants to devote his time to not only catching pedophiles, but also rescuing the children and bringing them home. The score is as subtle as that of a daytime soap opera. The other actors I recognized include Mira Sorvino (barely in it), Bill Camp (the crazy homeless guy who did the over-the-top MacBeth monologue in Birdman), and Kurt Fuller (Scary Movie, Wayne’s World). Camp and the child actors give the best performances; they have the most opportunity to shine.

Sound of Freedom is a spiritless, heavy-handed slog that is more about buzzwords, bumper sticker phrases, and virtue signaling than a compelling film with forward momentum and authentic drama. The most predictable of which is when a character says “Hear that? That’s…” No points for guessing the rest of the line, but I bet you know it. In Caviezel’s end-credits monologue, he says he believes this could be “the Uncle Tom’s Cabin for 21^st century slavery” – and also seems to imply that we can somehow put an end to child slavery/trafficking by spreading the word about this film and getting as many people as possible to see it. I’m not sure how that would accomplish it. There’s potential for a powerful, engaging, interesting, well-made movie from this story. Sound of Freedom isn’t it.

Grade: C