Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot

Grade: B-

I did not go into Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot with excitement or optimism. This is, after all, the same studio that brought us Sound of Freedom last year. A friend had advised me to bring tissues to it. I wish I had, because I was bored to tears. These are part of a subset of movies that have been hit-or-miss with me. They are often overly dramatic, saccharine, and treacly. They go for easy tears, and have a forced Christian element that wants to make people feel good in the feelies. A few recent titles that I’d lump in with that group include Jesus Revolution, On a Wing and a Prayer, The Hill, On Fire, and Unsung Hero. Even if I liked a couple of those, the word “despite” would creep into the review. Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot is one of the better ones.

Make no mistake: it suffers from a few of the maladies that brought down other movies like it. The score is bombastic and intrusive. There is a ton of voice-over narration. 90% of it doesn’t do the film any favors. It’s provided by Donna Martin, the wife of Reverend WC Martin. Even in the midst of struggling along just barely getting by as a family of four, Donna feels called upon to adopt some children. Yes, human ones, she reinforces for WC. With the cautiously optimistic help of caseworker Susan Ramsey, Donna and WC adopt a few kids from broken homes and it’s not long until many other families in the East Texas town of Possum Trot follow suit. By the end of the movie, when WC reaches out to Susan about adopting more, she delightfully tells him there aren’t any available within 100 miles.

It’s not all rainbows and warm fuzzies. The most problematic one for Donna and WC is teenager Terri (Diaana Babnicova). The viewer probably doesn’t know the half of her traumatic past, but she often acts like a cat. WC has a creative way of dealing with this. At dinner time, he says “Ok, since you’re a cat, we’ll put you outside with a dish of raw meat. If you’re still hungry after that, no worries, you’re bound to find some mice out there.” After a couple hours, she says she doesn’t want to be a cat. She’s ready to be a girl again, and come in to eat people food.

Babnicova gives one of several effective performances. We want her to succeed, and we pull for this family situation to work out. Nika King (65, Euphoria) as Donna, Demetrius Grosse (Straight Outta Compton, Saving Mr. Banks) as WC, and Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost) as Susan are reliable, memorable anchors. Despite (there I go) the usual filmmaking pitfalls that bog down movies of this ilk, the actors are convincing and committed. They serve the material and make it work as well as it does.

The movie ends with a lengthy montage of the real-life people in the present day, side-by-side in a split screen with the actors who played them, accompanied of course by captions that tell us what happened to everyone. After that, the real Donna and WC say a few words, and direct us to a QR code where you can look into getting involved. By the time the film ended, I was on board enough with the characters and the story, that I liked all of that, and wouldn’t have cut any of it. I would have welcomed about 20 minutes of trimming from the regular movie. As it is, though, Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot does a fine job of bringing attention to this amazing true story, and cause. There’s a reason why some of these make you feel good in the feelies.

Grade: B-