Last night, a friend of mine messaged me with a comment about the new film Sound of Freedom. He called it worth the watch. I told him I did not know if I was going to see it and that it depended on my schedule. This led to a debate between us.

He shared with me a YouTube video stating that the movie was trying to be buried by the woke Hollywood media and it used a series of negative reviews of the movie to prove their case. I called this a clickbait video, which I still believe. I did watch the video and saw that they were using a series of reviews that had QAnon in the headlines. Yet, Rotten Tomatoes had the film at a 74%, which did not seem to match the narrative the YouTuber was saying.

I wanted to have as much knowledge as possible so after I watched the video, I read some of the negative reviews listed on it. These included Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and Jezebel, and, to be fair, these reviews did focus more on the QAnon aspect than the movie itself. However, I do not think that is uncommon as there were several critics who recently panned The Flash because of the controversy surrounding its star Ezra Miller. So I wondered why the reviews were targeting Qanon in these reviews.

It does seem as if the lead actor of Sound of Freedom, Jim Caviezel has made the rounds in promotion of this movie and has made some comments that are out of the QAnon playbook, insinuating some things about the collection of adrenochrome at some QAnon conventions and he mentioned some other conspiracy theories on far right programs. When an actor of the movie makes comments in the media like this, I do think it is fair to include that criticism in a movie review.

I find QAnon to be a horrible thing and that this has given a place for the bigots, racists and white supremists to get together. However, I want to be fair to the movie and I have been doing my best to not judge anything that I am reviewing because of an artist involved. My philosophy is look at the art not the artist. That way, I can enjoy or dislike a film by Mel Gibson, Ezra Miller, Woody Allen, Jonathan Majors or others because of what I see on the screen, not what happens behind it. It is a difficult chore at times, but I am constantly working on it.

So with a lot on my mind, I found a showing this morning at Cinemark for Sound of Freedom and I went with as open of a mind as I could have.

The film tells the true story of Tim Ballard (Jim Caviezel), a former government agent whose job investigating the world of child sex trafficking was tearing him down. He became involved in a case that led him to rescue a young boy (Lucás Ávila) from the sexual predators. The boy told Tim about his sister Rocío (Cristal Aparicio), who had also been taken the same time that he was. The little girl becomes a driving force behind Tim’s choices, deciding to head to Columbia in an attempt at a rescue.

Jim Caviezel does a very good job as Tim Ballard. Caviezel’s use of his expressive eyes is very effective showing you what the man is feeling and thinking about without a lot of dialogue. Tim’s connection in Columbia, a character named Vampiro (Bill Camp) was one of the most interesting characters in the film and his reactions with Tim were strong. When Vampiro told the story of why he now spends his time buying children and helping to free them from the sex slave life was probably the best moment of the movie and Camp was outstanding in that scene.

I would also like to shout out Lucás Ávila and Cristal Aparicio, who both did an excellent job portraying these abused children. I believed everything that they did and their performances felt very real and sincere.

The music of the film, scored by Javier Navarrete, was wonderful. Each use of music did a great job of spotlighting the emotions of the scene.

I was not a fan of the third act, where Tim went into the jungle to try and find Rocío who had been purchased by the leader of a group of rebels. This entire section of the film felt hard to believe and seemed to be exaggerated for the film.

Some of the dialogue of the film was weak, but I do think that the strong performances helped to elevate the material.

Sound of Freedom was heavy and dark, difficult to watch at times and filled with a horrendous truth about the evil of human trafficking going on in the world. This is a real problem facing people across the planet and should not be used as a political talking point. Even though I do not believe that the Hollywood media is having a meltdown over this movie’s success, I do wish the movie could be judged on its own merits and not on its adjacent connection to QAnon. That is because Sound of Freedom is a solid thriller on its own.

3.5 stars