Sound of Freedom
Inspired by a true story of child trafficking, the year’s most surprising sleeper hit is powerful but too slick for its own good.
Of human bondage: Cristal Paricio and Lucás Ávila
Films about drug trafficking, money laundering and gun running have become one a penny. Yet in real life the disease that dare not speak its name has become the planet’s worst criminal issue. The violation of innocence, or the sexual abuse of children, is now the world’s fastest growing industry in organised crime. To quote Tim Ballard, who founded the non-profit Operation Underground Railroad, you can only sell a bag of cocaine once. A child you can sell five times a day. Which is why child trafficking is now a $150 billion-a-year industry, while there are more slaves in captivity than at any time in history – even when slavery was legal.
Here, Ballard is played by Jim Caviezel, a blonde, blue-eyed slab of beefcake who sacrifices everything to rescue a single girl, a symbol of the millions he is unable to save. We first see Rocío (Cristal Paricio) through her bedroom window in Honduras as she uses her flipflops as instruments of percussion, a beat that becomes the emotional motif of the film. Spotted in the market by a glamorous talent scout called Giselle (Yessica Borroto), she and her little brother Miguel (Lucás Ávila) are lured into a hotel room for an audition. Their father Roberto (José Zúñiga) is reluctant to leave them there but is seduced by the prospect of their success in show business. When he returns at the allotted hour, the hotel room is empty…
There’s no denying the urgency of the film’s message – or, indeed, the power of its delivery. Shot in 2018, it was shelved by Disney when the company took over 20th Century Fox, forcing the filmmakers to buy back the rights. And, with the help of 100,000 online investors, Angel Studios were able to finance a worldwide release. Against the odds, and on a very modest budget of $14.5m (it certainly doesn’t look it), Sound of Freedom has taken $183 million worldwide and is among the top twenty highest-grossing movies of 2023. Where there’s a will…
But there are problems. In spite of excellent production values, immersive cinematography of the impenetrable jungles of Colombia and a lush, opulent score by Spain's Javier Navarrete, it fails to move on a gut-wrenching human level. This is largely because Ballard – and Caviezel, Ballard’s own choice to play him – is like so many other on-screen crusading law enforcers who have put their careers on the line for the greater good. While Caviezel is excellent and brings an enormous compassion and stillness to his role, he still resembles a cinematic trope. However, Ballard himself really is a square-jawed, blue-eyed hunk, so it might have been more effective to have told the story from Rocío’s POV. Of course, the subject matter is extremely sensitive and one worries for the well-being of its young players. But there isn’t a hint of gratuitousness in Rod Barr and Alejandro Monteverde’s script, permitting the rollcall of beer-gutted grotesques to stir the viewer’s disgust. It is a film that demands to be seen, or at least to be discussed, but it is perhaps too slick for its own good. Its message is clear – but less so the authenticity of its delivery.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Jim Caviezel, Eduardo Verástegui, Javier Godino, Gustavo Sanchez Parra, Kurt Fuller, José Zúñiga, Kris Avedisian, Mira Sorvino, Bill Camp, Manny Perez, Yessica Borroto, Cristal Paricio, Lucás Ávila, Gary Basaraba.
Dir Alejandro Monteverde, Pro Eduardo Verástegui, Ex Pro Mel Gibson, Screenplay Rod Barr and Alejandro Monteverde, Ph Gorka Gómez and Andreu Aec, Pro Des Carlos Lagunas, Ed Brian Scofield, Music Javier Navarrete, Costumes Juliana Poveda, Sound Nathan Ruyle.
Santa Fe Films-Angel Studios/KOVA.
130 mins. USA/Mexico. 2023. US Rel: 4 July 2023. UK Rel: 1 September 2023. Cert. 15.
