Christian Flick Does Ok with a ‘Sound of Hope'
It's not always my favorite genre, but these dramas can work on the coldest of hearts.
Dear Moviegoers,
When we first see the young teenager Terri, played by Diaana Babnicova, in Sound of Hope, she’s packing her things in a garbage bag, and leaving another foster home. Her case worker gives some heavy-handed shade to the foster guardian, but Terri moves along like this is all normal. Unfortunately, it is normal, and for many kids. Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot, for all of its wholesome Christian faith superiority, does get a few things right, by which I don’t mean “correct” but rather “true.” And Terri’s turmoil is the highlight.
Released by the message bearers at Angel Studios (who I’ve covered before), this entry in their catalog is another dramatic retelling of a real story, punctuated by a post-movie reveal and speech from the real-life people depicted. This time, a small town, Possum Trot in East Texas, is front and center, with its tight community of mostly black churchgoers who make it their mission to adopt/foster as many needy children as possible. Seventy-seven kids come around, and for the most part, the town is successful at providing good homes for them. Not without some hiccups, as encountered by the lead characters and situation-starters of a preacher’s wife and her husband.
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There is voice-over narration from the wife that is at times both badly written and strangely accented as if to be universally southern. There are one too many performances of desperation, sadness, courage, and victory from the adults, each of which takes something away from the previously abused kids, who act their hearts out to portray pain and resilience in equal measure. The young actors are the heroes here, especially Diaana Babnicova.
Her role as Terri must’ve been quite a challenge. Terri deals with her trauma by behaving like a talking cat, by running out at night, and by rebelling in some disturbing ways. The cat stuff is treated by the preacher’s family as a kid-like quirk that’s met by them with patience and a lesson involving putting food out on the porch - clever, complex, and confusing. Babnicova grants Sound of Hope much redemptive power and greatly expands the drama and the selfless acts of heroism that the film attempts. She is incredible. Diaana Babnicova is incredible.
Sound of Hope, from what I understand, is part of a loosely connected franchise of “Sound” films, the first of which was Sound of Freedom, which covered the human trafficking of children. One could argue that American adoption programs are, at least when it comes to children of immigrants, legal trafficking of sorts, making The Story of Possum Trot a bit more complicated. Were the residents helping as part of a higher mission, or self-satisfaction? I say higher mission, at least as far as the movie tells it. Far be it for me to speculate further than the film’s eye view and blunt force call directly into the camera. It’s probably sincere. More than likely, as there have been many positive stories that have come out of Possum Trot’s goals. Truly the stuff of cinematic proportions, even with the speaking-to-the-pews thing - though maybe others will listen too. If so, it’ll be because of one character and one performance. 3/5
Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot is now playing in theaters.