Sound of Freedom
The movie “Sound of Freedom” has a message that is first and foremost, and a story that comes second. Its message is to get us to care more about child sex trafficking it shows queasy sequences of kids in danger, being carted around by slimy adults, it makes us remember everyone’s faces. Then it gives us a weary hero Tim Ballard, an American man whose superpower is that he cares. This father and husband cares so much he leaves his job at Homeland Security 10 months short of earning a pension, instead of only catching pedophiles, as he’s done nearly 300 times before, he goes undercover in Colombia to help rescue children. This man is played by Jim Caviezel, gentle and gravely serious as always (he carries this message’s suffering not unlike when he played Jesus Christ on Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ”).
The story is true but barely comes alive with such telling. Which is too bad, not just because I don’t want to be numbed by these themes but also because Alejandro Monteverde clears the low bar for filmmaking one expects from movies that are message first (and often come with similar faith-driven backers). Take away everything surrounding it and “Sound of Freedom” has distinct cinematic ambitions It’s like a non graphic horror film with an art house sensibility for muted rage and precise striking shadows derived from an already bleak world. If “Sound of Freedom” were less concerned with being something “important,” it could be more than a mood; it could be a movie.
But on its own, “Sound of Freedom” is just boringly solemn there isn’t much especially bold about caring for the safety of children if you ask me or any remotely decent human being. Previous films like “Gone Baby Gone” or “Taken” have also banked on that tension how easy it is to be invested in a story when children are stolen and put into uncertain danger. But while being so committed to such solemnity and suffering, the truncated storytelling by co-writers Monteverde and Rod Barr fails to flesh out its ideas or characters or add any more intensity to Ballard’s slow slow slow burn search for two kids in particular (Lucás Ávila’s Miguel and Cristal Aparicio’s Rocío) whose faces haunt him. The “true story” framing only gives it so much edge before that, too, is dulled.
This world is so fraught with worry about the kids that it avoids creating tension elsewhere so it puts Ballard in dull scenes opposite gullible one-dimensional creeps, his undercover missions, which sometimes have him speaking like the pedophiles he is pursuing, are more about the audience’s discomfort than his danger. There aren’t even any mind games to be played here, just the settings of sting operations made from a broad idea of how this would happen in real life. It’s one anti-climactic moment after another while it’s intriguing how Monteverde leans away from violence or machismo, it puts little else in its place. (For anyone gearing up to see “Sound of Freedom” because the poster has Caviezel holding a gun and a glare. This isn’t that kind of movie.)
Handsomely stark scenes often get reduced to three or four lines of dialogue including the eureka moment of how Ballard gets involved in this process.
When his work buddy asks him how many children he’s saved, Ballard decides to change careers. As Katherine, Ballard’s wife (Mira Sorvino) is credited with inspiring his journey but we only hear from her a couple of cliche sentences at a time. Bill Camp plays a confidant for Ballard, and we get to hear more from him including a gutting monologue about being at the heart of darkness of child sexual abuse that also sets up the movie’s title and Ballard’s catchphrase bumper sticker: “God’s children are not for sale.”
The only anchor of this otherwise hollow character study, Caviezel looks like an old-school savior with his blonde hair cutting through the movie’s gray and black palette. It’s an intriguing, restrained performance but loses its appeal parallel to how the movie doesn’t develop Ballard beyond being a symbol. A casual YouTube search on the real Tim Ballard shows that he’s a far more outspoken, hyper type than we see here; it colors what seems like weary storytelling about selfless heroes who must be superhuman to save kids out of sex trafficking rings.
“Sound of Freedom” takes place in, and posits itself as, a tough conversation piece about the world of child sex trafficking but it’s hardly any more informational than a horror movie about bogeymen. A few factoids about modern slavery are shared in text at the end Suggesting it could be anywhere and there’s another note about how Ballard’s dedication helped pass legislation that made international cooperation on such stings possible. But these notes pale compared to yet again being misguided and making the cause all about itself. As if to top off this noise machine during end credits reflections on Jim Caviezel movies, he re appears to say how they believe this one could be their “Uncle Tom’s Cabin for 21st century slavery.” He says that kids in a movie are the real heroes but spends most of the time trying to empower you, the people, to spread the word scan the QR code buy more tickets so other people can see this and end this. But there’s little transparency here about how seeing Monteverde’s film actually helps stop anything, as it suggests. The suspiciousness of “Sound of Freedom” is queasy itself.
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