Sound of Freedom is the dramatization of the true story of Tim Ballard, a U.S. special agent who quits his job to go undercover to rescue children from sex traffickers in Central America.

Given the conservative Christian circles that I move in, it's a surprise that it's taken me this long to watch this film. I had heard pretty great things about it, chiefly because it shines light on the modern day travesty of human trafficking, and secondarily because it showed that independent films with a conservative/religious slant could be well produced and not cheesy.

And it indeed is a well produced film. The cinematography was great, the acting was mostly solid, and it never felt low-budget in any way.

The introduction was particularly well done. The movie opens with a series of real life security camera footages of children being nabbed off the streets. Seeing these videos with your own eyes is heart wrenching. It definitely makes an impact and sets up the theme of the movie well.

We are then introduced, through two scenes, to our main characters. In the first scene, Roberto, a Honduran father, is tricked into letting his children, Rocio and Miguel, audition for a "modeling agency." When he returns to pick them up from their "audition", he finds that the office has been abandoned and his children are gone.

In the second scene, we are introduced to Tim Ballard as he tries to ingratiate himself to a suspected distributor of child pornography to get him to reveal his contacts and confess his crimes.

What works so well about the introductory scenes is that a lot is communicated without many words being spoken. The facial expressions, a few well placed sentences here and there, the use of silence and timing, all work together to tell us who the characters are without much exposition. In one telling scene, Tim's new partner asks him, "How many pedophiles have you busted?" To which Tim replies, "288." The partner then asks, "How many of those children have you found?" The ensuing silence tells us all we need to know. This method of "show, don't tell" is a breath of fresh air compared to most Hollywood movies which are exposition heavy (probably to cater to international audiences who won't pick up on the non-verbal cues.)

The rest of the story follows TIm as he chances upon Miguel, who asks him about his sister Rocio. This triggers Tim to embark on a quest to rescue Rocio, even if he has to quit his job to do it.

Unfortunately, the rest of the film is not as strong as the beginning. If I had to point to one flaw, it would be that the villains were not compelling. They felt neither smart, nor particularly dangerous. Because of that, I never really felt any tension in the film. It always felt like Tim's mission was more likely to fail due to bureaucracy than due to the villains catching on. Maybe that's realistic, but it doesn't make for riveting cinema. Even though it's based on a true story, I wouldn't have minded if the film dramatized the villains a bit more, and developed them as smart, dangerous characters worthy of our fear and anger.

A second, more dangerous set of villains is introduced towards the end of the film, but they are given very little screen time and we don't feel invested in taking them down.

To summarize, I liked the film. It's a brave film to take on such difficult subject matter. It was competently produced and acted. It wasn't preachy, despite having clear Christian influences. However, the film just wasn't that fun to watch. Dare I say it, I was feeling bored halfway through the film, despite the excellent beginning. It reminded me a bit of Argo, another show about an undercover operation that I felt the same way about. It's worth a watch if you like that genre, or want to know more about the subject matter, or want to support independent media. But for everyone else, this might be something you save for when you have extra time.