In recent years, no one would blame you for being apprehensive of an Angel Studios film, especially after their film last year about child trafficking titled ‘Sound of Freedom’ took the world by storm and many fans of the movie say it was massive due to the anti-woke Hollywood campaigns. The film grossed over 242 million dollars in ticket sales, it starred a qanoon influencer who pushed that narrative that children were being sold and abused in the industry and many bigwigs in the industry ignored it.
As strange as it might sound even to self sabotage is the fact that the studio’s film that follows ‘Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot’ is milks toast and dull. It’s a light heart warming tale with tears and joy around child abuse that never gets its pitch voice and parents simply don’t care. A religious movie, a lovey dove story about Jesus, and about how church people are attracted to it all without the ugly that somehow exists.
Situated in East Texas, Possum Trot is a small town with a predominantly Black population and a powerful Baptist church led by the charming Reverend W.C. Martin (Demetrius Grosse). The real “First Lady,” Donna (Nika King), struggles to manage her two children and their increasing debts. However, in an extreme state of unrest, she appears to hear God talking to her through the whistling trees. The children want to adopt dozens with the assurance that God called her, “Real babies? “Why does W.C. bark?” They were all blessed with a Biblical mentality and felt strong urges to help the needy.
This decision is something that Susan Ramsey (Elizabeth Mitchell) has a hard time understanding; Susan is a caseworker who is very jaded after witnessing the system fail so many children in the foster care system in Texas. However, she sees the chance and allows the Martins to adopt as many children as they wish out of the broken ones among the most vulnerable of them is the teenage Terri (Dianna Bebinca), who has been traumatized and only comes to them wearing a cat costume. Initially, those moments are played for comedic effect, as her idiosyncrasies are amusing. Nonetheless, thankfully, director Terry Weigel (who writes the script with his wife Rebekah) is quite skillful in balancing the scales with plenty of sentiment.
The story about the Martins encourages the rest of the town to adopt, and soon 77 children arrive to be housed with the residents of Possum Trot. After this “Story of Hope”, the rest of the film grapples with the growth pain of most families within the community attempting to undertake such a selfless mission placing them at risk. Absolutely, it is sustaining and somewhat highly Christian to adopt and take care of so many children who are at risk. In this case, the black community church comes together rather beautifully and sociably. But when the bills begin to come in, tension does as well, particularly from Donna’s direction as she witnesses and remains within the general care of so many traumatized and bombarded children which she has welcomed into her home.
Weigel acts, as they so often do in such scenarios, with a tone that does no such thing as compromise, the gravity of the situation too great for melodrama and a camera that is focused on the moment rather than the actors. The premise revolves around the firm conviction that God works through people, more specifically the selfless women of the black southern church that can be congregated during a church service, and that God’s message can be found in many places including a church. The rhythms of the choir are however captivating though not breathtaking and even then the two hours of a seemingly directionless tale is quite difficult to achieve anything other than drifting off.
Make no mistake, one cannot be blame those who hold an agenda and are not afraid to expose the grim aspects of adoption: the hurt children, the impossible situations, and the unrelenting finances. However, the film goes through these cycles of tears and happy moments and by the time it shows the climax where Terri suffers from a breakdown and later gets redeemed after a baptism, it seems to be affected as it was a forced climax. To complicate a straightforward story even further, Donna’s narrates the entire thing childish annoying voice hawking the morals of the tale making it seem like Weigel didn’t have faith in his close up shots and talent which is quite baffling.
Although I wouldn’t consider “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot” a right wing gung ho film like “Sound of Freedom” in its most Nobel way it can be regarded as an inspirational message in support of charity and community, one of the very pious Christian movies to highlight the positive attributes of religion instead of regurgitating Fox News narratives.
Just like “Sound of Freedom”, “Possum Trot” does not end with emotional montages of the real people along with the families who are thankful to God and the community for their bright and hopeful future but also with a minute long appeal for people to help promote the film.
The actual W.C. and Donna are talking on the screen of a teleprompter and a QR code appears on the screen, that is , “Pay It Forward” in which the fans are encouraged to donate in order for the tickets for others to watch free of charge. This is an old trick which helped “Freedom” escalate and succeed tremendously at the box office earning and helped Angel Studios in providing a model for their movies. Well, I am not exactly comfortable with the way it all stars the company and makes a profit. But if this is unavoidable then I would rather it be a film with a good cause.
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