Sound of Freedom - A Heavy Crime Drama with Some Powerful Messages

This week there was no major Hollywood movies released in the cinemas while the Indonesia films were not of interest for me. But there was a film shown since Wednesday that I wanted to give a try. Since we were not having anything really important to do yesterday, we decided to go and see this movie. All right, let's get to it.

Brief Story Line

Tim Ballard (Jim Caviezel - Passion of the Christ, Person of Interest TV series etc), an agent for Homeland Security Investigations had been capturing pedophiles for years and finally realized that the children saved were too few. After apprehended the latest criminal and managed to save a victim who was the child of Roberto Aguilar (Jose Zuniga - Half Brothers, The Duel etc), Tim set his heart on saving other children. Despite not fully approved by his boss (Kurt Fuller - Evil TV series, Ghostbusters II etc), but Tim's wife Katherine (Mira Sorvino - Stuber, The Replacement Killers etc) truly understood and supported his decision.

With the help from a Colombian police Jorge (Javier Godino) and a former Cartel member Vampiro (Bill Camp - The Queen's Gambit mini series, Dark Waters etc), Tim started on a personal mission to save as many children as he could from sex trafficking.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line 

Ok, I was interested in seeing this movie because I thought it got some action on top of its drama. But when I started watching, I realized that this was more like a crime drama focusing on the agent Tim Ballard's background story on why he decided to do what he did. Obviously the children were what made the film felt very dramatic and it opened our eyes of how terrible the human trafficking was in the world and made us disgusted on people who could do this for a living. It also made us feel sad on the very young victims. Since we knew it was based on true story (as stated in the opening scene), it made us more in awe of the action of Tim Ballard.

The cast especially Jim Caviezel was amazing to my opinion with his tearful eyes and devastated looks that really moved us. I also like Bill Camp as the ex Cartel member who sometimes provided a bit of humor, plus Jose Zuniga who was quite perfect as the father of kidnapped children. There were few times that my wife and I felt very emotional while seeing this movie with him and Caviezel in the heart of them. The appearance of young Cristal Aparicio and Lucas Avila amazed us as well as they were convincing in their roles as Rocio and Miguel Aguilar.

The film itself to me was a really heavy drama and there were plenty of scenes that raised our emotions and even overwhelming at times. From the sadness of seeing the children, the repulsive feeling on the pedophiles, the anger towards the sex traffickers and intensity during the operation to save the victims. The duration of the movie was 131 minutes which felt long, but I could understand it after finishing as the closing credit was quite lengthy. It showed some real life photos and videos of Tim Ballard and a message that you could see. We also noticed a very long list of funders of the movie which apparently was more than 7000 people. Yes they needed investors to help distribute the film which was why it was categorized as independent movie. 

For a movie with main focus on delivering powerful messages, I think it was pretty successful with many people went on to see it in the theater. It became a sleeper hit and was huge commercial success of achieving USD 250 million in box office on a budget of USD 14 million.  It also has a really high audience rating, although critics were not as well receptive. I could understand their views too since personally to me the movie sometimes could be a bit unclear on where it was heading (the first 20 minutes or so) with few overly detailed & perhaps disturbing scene (like the part where children were going to be victimized, although it might be done by the director Alejandro Monteverde to give more hatred towards the action of the criminals). 

Overall this might not have been the most critically acclaimed film, but its ability to raise our emotions and open our eyes were definitely a great point. My wife and I certainly part of the audience who felt it as a powerful drama movie with some intensity even if we knew some of them were dramatization and did not actually happen. So if you like such film, I am sure you would like this one just like my wife and I did. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars