Angel Studios’ recent movie, Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot is not immune to the studio’s typical criticism (yes, it uses children suffering as a tool to proselytize Christianity), but the film isn’t as bad as its detractors say it is, nor is it as good as its fans argue; like most films, it falls somewhere in the middle, a mix of good and bad – shocking, I know.
The story of Possum Trot
Inspired by a true story, Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot tells the story of a small-town church in Texas that ends up adopting 77 difficult-to-place children. This effort is led by Reverend W.C. Martin (Demetrius Grosse) and his wife Donna Martin (Nika King), the leaders of the town’s Baptist church. After Donna’s mother dies, Donna copes with the grief – eventually – by determining the best way to serve God is to adopt children who need the most help.
At first, this choice is met with hesitation from the reverend, but he eventually champions the cause himself. He does so by preaching about how the Bible says that we have to help people, especially those who aren’t getting other help. He continues pushing his congregation to help, letting them know that the Bible says we have to live a good and upright life, which doesn’t always mean living an easy life.
As the Martins begin to take in more and more children – they end the film with four adopted children along with their two biological ones – they start to struggle to balance work, expenses, and giving all of the children the love and attention they need, a problem that these children’s case worker (Elizabeth Mitchell) said would be a problem. As the weeks, months, and years pass, the Martins and the other family who adopted children in Possum Trot begin to feel dismayed at how hard the raising of these children is.
Of course, faith and community bring them all back together in the end, and any problem brought up through the film’s 129-minute runtime is succinctly solved by the film’s conclusion. There are various different problems the family encounters, but turning toward love and faith solves all of them. No matter the problem, they all feel surmountable because we know that – especially because of who made the film – it is guaranteed to be a happy film; God will solve anything, any problem.
Everything else?
If this story sounds hectic and consuming, that’s because it is. It’s an amazing narrative, but its appeal stretches throughout this film’s runtime. If it was 90 or 100 minutes, the story would have been more effective. Instead, it feels closer to exploitation. Because of how much trauma and abuse the film shows us, it overly emphasizes this – albeit important – component of children in the foster and adoption system.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with depicting the horrors of abuse and child neglect, but if you make it the major image of your film, it becomes clear quite quickly that you’re using that image for something. Thankfully, it’s not for shock value here. It is, however, exploitative to push your audience to make major life choices by effectively saying, “But look at the most horrible moments of something; YOU can be the one to solve it.”
This is made even more distasteful with the film’s ending. Like most Angel Studio pictures, the film ends with a message. In Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot, this message is delivered by the Martins, and that message is that we have to be the ones to adopt the children who are currently in the system. Outside of Angel’s typical QR code to gift tickets to others, the film wants you to be the change in the world. Effectively, it’s more than 2 hours of propaganda.
What about the filmmaking?
Yeah… about that. It’s not great. From the first shot, the film looks grey and murky, as if you forgot to turn the brightness up on your phone before watching it. This is going to be made even worse since this film will be watched on cell phones frequently. There are some cool shots, but mostly the film is entirely bland and watches like a made-for-TV movie. Again, it’s not abhorrent; it’s just wildly acceptable.
The acting from most of the adult cast is highly over the top. Nika King is so wildly present and over the top that she is consistently noticed. Elizabeth Mitchell has to balance the villain role threatening to pull the children and the hero who delivers them to safety, and neither of these roles is done to a high level; they are both done acceptably and balanced but nothing to write home about.
Demetrius Grosse is quiet and restrained, except when he isn’t. It’s a trope that’s played out, but in my viewing, it felt more like bad writing than bad acting. If my guess is correct, he did about all that he could with a below-average (at best) script. Technically, that makes him the stand-out performer, but he didn’t stand out at all.
In all, it’s a mediocre film that’s held up by a supremely interesting story. The most engaging part is the end when it cuts to show the real family, all grown up. Seeing the people after their harrowing journey is wonderful, but is it worth a couple of hours of average movie-going? For me, not really, but your mileage may vary.
Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot is now available on digital.
Learn more about the film, including how to watch, at the official website.
You might also like…
