Based on true events, Sound of Freedom tells the story of Tim Ballard, a heroic government agent who resigned from his position so he could help release hundreds of children from sexual slavery. For dramatic purposes, the film’s story narrows down Ballard’s primary focus to the rescue of an enslaved young girl from Honduras who is the sister to a young boy he saves early on in the film. The search puts Ballard in many life-threatening and morally repugnant situations, eventually taking him to the depths and dangers of the Columbian jungle, where he is forced to face unspeakable inhumanity in some of its most potently destructive and evil forms.
If the film sounds like a QAnon-friendly, white savior fantasy, that’s because it could very easily be construed as one. There is much in the film that can easily appeal to the fear-mongering practices and over-simplified beliefs of the extreme right. However, judging the film solely on those aspects and from that point of view is unfair because it’s so much more than that. Sound of Freedom is a smart, sincere, and classy film that brings attention to a highly significant topic that demands immediate action.
Jim Caviezel stars as Ballard. Though the actor has risked cheapening the film by publicly linking it to more conservative beliefs, his work still manages to speak for itself and deserves respect from all political sides. It is a performance brimming with integrity, commitment, and quiet focus. Caviezel is an actor who can speak volumes with stillness and simplicity, and his talents serve the movie wonderfully. The movie’s success heavily relies on his performance, and Caviezel carries the film with unending strength and the appearance of impressive ease.
Co-writer/director Alejandro Monteverde and his filmmaking team handle the film with care, never exploiting or sensationalizing its extremely sensitive subject matter. Sound of Freedom has a classical and observational style that doesn’t dictate emotions or attempt to manipulate the viewer into thinking any particular way. Gorka Gomez Andrue’s cinematography is beautifully and darkly lit. Camera set-ups are kept to a minimum, letting scenes unfold in long takes that allow moments and performances to be realized in a naturalistic and highly believable manner. Editor Brian Scofield keeps the film moving at an involving pace, never losing its steady momentum and consistently maintaining the uneasy tension that the storyline demands.
Sound of Freedom skillfully tells its fascinating tale while revealing some very unsettling truths about the modern world in a highly intelligent, intense, and heartfelt manner. It carefully communicates warnings and awareness about a very disturbing but highly urgent topic, making it as easily accessible to the general movie-going public as possible. Though the film is wholly engrossing, it’s hard to label it as exciting, entertaining, or enjoyable. It’s the kind of movie that truly only needs to be seen once because it very clearly says what it wants to say, exposes what it wants to expose, and stays embedded in the viewer’s mind long after it’s over. Sound of Freedom is as disturbing as it should be, but never to the point that it’s not entirely clear how much its creators truly care about the harrowing but vital message it so boldly conveys.
GRADE: A
