One cannot help but be skeptical of an Angel Studios picture after all, the Utah-based movie studio made headlines in 2021 when its picture featured a child trafficking plot and became a box office success, shocking everyone. Children of the Border was disgusting. The film earned $242 million due to stars promoting QAnon conspiracies and the entire population of fans feeling empowered as they tried standing up against everything ‘godless’ and anti-American about ‘woke’ Hollywood, which is perceived to traffic and abuse children.
This explains why, perhaps even foolishly, the studio’s successor which is “Sound of Hope The Story of Possum Trot,” is heartbreaking even if that sounds unreasonable or ignorant. Almost any docudrama on the welfare of children does not try to sensationalize anything. This is nothing more than a standard Christian sentiment that tries to appeal to the religious crowd by playing the chords plainly without even trying to bring artistry into it.
The central idea of Possum Trot is the focus of this narrative where it is a real place within a largely African American community, located in an East Texas town that is predominantly populated with African Americans and is centered around a prominent Baptist church with Reverend W.C. Martin portraying its leading figure, Demetrius Grosse. His “First Lady,” Donna (Nika King), tries to maintain her balance with two children and an ever-growing list of bills. But in the middle of the wild black nights, she says she hears a stream and whispers in the trees God speaks. She’s been called, she says she desires to do foster care again. “Foster human animals?” W.C. snaps impatiently. Nonetheless, they venture forth, driven by a Biblical call to help those in need.
It is a decision that confounds Susan Ramsey (Elizabeth Mitchell), one of the caseworkers who grew disillusioned with the system’s failure to assist the various children in the Texas foster system. Nonetheless, she spots the opportunity and allows the Martins to foster several children who came from abusive families the most difficult of which is Terri (Diaana Babnicova), an abused child who acted like a cat. They intended her quirks as humor but thank God for director Terry Weigel (who besides that also co-wrote the screenplay with his wife Rebekah) who sobered the people by delivering a load of drama.
The story of the Martins encourages the rest of the town to adopt more children, and within no time, 77 children move in with the residents of Possum Trot. From here, “Story of Hope” settles into a generally heartwarming family drama narrative, as the townsfolk know the benefits and disadvantages of doing such a selfless act now that they have decided to bring the children home. One cannot deny that it feels great and Christian to adopt so many at-risk children, and the Black church community goes around each assisting the other. But there’s been a lot of tension generally, and finance has become an issue, with Donna especially having difficulties coping with the traumas and triggers of the many children that she has taken on board.
In these situations, as is almost always the case, Weigel presides over the events of these proceedings with a wry sense of urgency accompanied by dramatic background music. The concept of God inhabiting human beings broadens the horizons of this particular genre of film That of the southern black community of faith in action. The rhythms are fairly predictable in practice, and even a moderate light-hearted story fails to sustain viewer interest for two hours of screen time.
To be clear, however, it is commendable that the film which is aiming to make a statement chooses to deal with the darker shades of adoption such as the shattered dreams and impossible cases or even the financially strained situations. However, the film is frankly, boring as it traverses the arcs of struggles and achievements that become monotonous by the time it displays a lame climax wherein Terri is driven insane only to come back to life with the power of Christ the lifting ritual referred to as baptism for a reason. It appears as if the poor script wasn’t bad enough, Donna has to add to the irritation by telling us the story from start to end, spoon-feeding the ideas to the audience due to a lack of confidence in Weigel’s intimate cinematography and surprisingly talented actors.
Out of the two works depicted, “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot,” surely is nothing along the lines of extreme right beliefs as “Sound of Freedom” was; however, in its good aspects, it is a very touching and genuine telling about giving and helping people out in need and the essence of our community, where, unlike the majority of Christian-based films, focuses on showcasing what Christianity is about rather then just simply repeating senseless talking points we hear on Fox News all the time such as “Christian good, everything else bad”.
Just like in the case of “Sound of Freedom” there is an empowerment to do more than just watching the film and feeling good about it, as “Possum Trot” finishes with tender clips featuring the real people, what their lives are now because of their faith and community, but also long minutes of a push to get involved with the film.
The real W.C. and Donna comically read a text from the teleprompter with a peace sign followed by video footage of a QR code saying “Pay It Forward” to donate tickets for other people to watch for free. Such a unique strategy helped ‘Freedom’ become an over-the-top box office hit, and also provided Angel Studios with a blueprint for its future films, which is interesting in its own right. As for what I think of its approach to economists bullying their way into making profits, I’m not too sure. But if it does happen, I would much prefer that it occur in a movie with a story that is worth telling.
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