(REVIEW) “Sound of Hope” highlights an important issue and improves on many of the problems in the typical faith-based film industry. But the problems it does retain from the genre heavily weakens what could have been a truly wonderful theatrical experience.

Angel Studios has had a turbulent year. Last year, they came out with their hit anti-sex trafficking film “Sound of Freedom,” but they have since been unable to replicate its success. They’ve also been hit by allegations within the faith-based industry of shady business practices, which have only gained strength when they got hit with their biggest recent loss: Losing distribution rights to their flagship TV series, “The Chosen” after an arbitration process employees alleged Angel Studios had violated their contracts. On the flip side, they’ve signed Alejandro Monteverde (the director behind their “Sound of Freedom” and “Cabrini” films) to a multi-picture deal and have gotten The Daily Wire to partner with them on their latest film “Sound of Hope,” which gives them access to their massive audience. 

“Sound of Hope” is the latest film distributed in theaters by Angel Studios — and the first in partnership with conservative media company The Daily Wire — produced by Letitia Wright (an openly Christian actress who played Shuri from “Black Panther”). The film tells the true life story of the town of Possum Trot, who, inspired by the town’s pastor and his wife, adopts over 70 children in foster care. The movie follows Donna Martin, the reverend’s wife, who, grieving the death of her mother, decides to adopt these children, and encourage the congregation to do the same. The results are both heartbreaking and hopeful.

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Angel Studios excels at picking worthy social issues to build movies around. Whether it's global sex trafficking (“Sound of Freedom”), or racism and immigration (“Cabrini”), the studio tends to focus on subjects that are both important and timely. The foster children crisis is often talked about as one of the biggest and most important crises in this country, with 391,098 children in foster care as of 2021, with a 61 percent drop in families willing to adopt them as of last year.  

Those who do not have families to adopt them stay in the system until they age. These children have collectively far worse life outcomes, including being at a higher risk for sex trafficking. In fact, one criticism of “Sound of Freedom” was that it implied that sex trafficking was driven by foreign operatives and illegal immigration and not by broken families within our own borders. (One reason I suspect the first trailer for “Sound of Hope” pushed this movie as a way to apply solving the sex trafficking issues brought up in “Sound of Freedom”). Letitia Wright deserves major credit for helping this movie get made, and Angel Studios deserves credit for getting a film on the topic out. 

“Sound of Hope”’s biggest strength is its focuses on the human drama in the middle of inspirational real-life events. The film spends time on why Donna Martin is inspired to adopt foster children, how she and her husband struggle with that decision and the fallout when it becomes more difficult than they had first expected. Most of the best scenes are between the Martins, where he’s ranting to her about having to beg other pastors for help, where they sing hymns together after a fight or where the whole church is singing together.

While other Angel Studios movies like “Sound of Freedom” and “Cabrini” spend almost no time with their protagonists when they’re not wagging their fingers at people, “Sound of Hope” cares about its protagonists as people, and therefore we more deeply identify with their experiences and can learn about ourselves, and perhaps be inspired, through them. 

Overall, the movie overcomes the typical faith-based industry problem of sanitizing the difficulties of Christian life. Not only does the film make clear the horror and abuse that goes on in homes that make the foster system necessary, but it consistently shows how difficult it is, and how long it takes, to obey God’s call to love and raise a traumatized child. Most faith-based films show the conflict is in making the decision to follow God’s will or in fighting external battles, but rarely shows the day-to-day process of how difficult it is and how much doubt can creep in (a critique I had of both “Jesus Revolution” and “Ordinary Angels”).  

“Sound of Hope” doesn’t shy away from any of these themes. One of the best scenes involves a freakout between Donna and her husband when they are at their wits end taking care of their adopted children (and don’t know if they can take it anymore) before finally reconciling.

I’m also happy that the faith-based film industry is leaning into having more mom protagonists. The industry has always had married Christian mothers as their main audience, so it's only fair — particularly since Hollywood seems to ignore that demographic entirely — for moms to be the leads in such films as well. Moms often don’t get movies made for them because, when they have time for watching movies, they prioritize seeing ones their children will enjoy. 

Donna is a quintessential Christian female protagonist. Her story is started by her own mom’s death, which inspires her (in what she believes is God speaking) to adopt needy children in the foster system. She then argues with her husband about the need to adopt the children, convinces him despite resistance and fights all the battles (both internal and external) to raise her new children with love.

Some of her story arcs cause her husband to fall into mildly anti-male stereotypes pervasive in faith-based industry films that I’ve written about before (particularly in my review of the movie “Unsung Hero”), where the wife is the more naturally spiritually mature one and the husband must be goaded into doing the right thing. But this movie does allow him to be right sometimes as well, which is another way it's light years ahead of other films of this genre. 

Unfortunately, the movie also has plenty of typical faith-based industry flaws that drag it down. Its obnoxious voiceover constantly interrupts emotional scenes to explain to audiences what we should be feeling. One scene becomes a parody of itself when a social worker gives an exposition TED talk about the foster care system, and then the film actually overlays voiceover on top of that exposition. The kids, meanwhile, never become fully developed people. Instead, they are simply problems for the adults to solve.

The movie even loses steam in the second half, where it appears to lose track of larger character arcs and instead becomes a successive series of problems the kids pose that the adults have to solve. The film’s cinematography, acting and writing, while solid, is largely that of a low-budget streaming movie. The film also reinforces some questionable tropes around spirituality which are all too common in faith-based industry films that following God will mean listening to what looks like a random emotional impulse of inspiration and that people who want to be more cautious are living out of fear.  

These flaws, while they may seem to some to be minor, do cumulatively blunt the emotional power of an otherwise deeply compelling story. So while for a faith-based industry film it shows remarkable growth in the right direction compared to secular ones, I can’t call it a great film as much as a refreshingly decent one.

That said, there’s no doubt this movie is a huge step up for the faith-based film industry in terms of character-based drama that elevates the impact of a worthy message and lifts up the work in order to make audiences see our humanity presented on screen. For those of us who’ve been waiting on faith-based films to match their secular counterparts for a long time, “Sound of Hope” definitely gives us something to hope for.

“Sound of Hope” will be in theaters starting July 4.

Joseph Holmes is an award-nominated filmmaker and culture critic living in New York City. He is co-host of the podcast “The Overthinkers” and its companion website theoverthinkersjournal.world, where he discusses art, culture and faith with his fellow overthinkers. His other work and contact info can be found at his website josephholmesstudios.com.