I had to pause this movie at several points just to cry, just to feel the roller coaster of emotions that I was feeling. But in the struggle, there is grace. In that way, I think this movie is a glimpse of heaven, and I’m going to explain why.

Hi, I’m Matteo Rivera, The Cinematic Catholic, and today I’m going to be reviewing “Sound of Hope: The Story of Pome Trot.” We are going to talk about that title later in this video, don’t you worry. “Sound of Hope” is the latest movie from Angel Studios, the production company that brought you “Sound of Freedom.” Whereas that movie dealt with the real-life horrors of human trafficking, this movie tells the true story of a town in East Texas that saved over 120 kids through adoption, led by one church and one woman who answered God’s call.

Should Catholics Watch Sound Of Hope: Possum Trot?

Now before I say anything about this movie, I should let you know if you’ve seen “Sound of Freedom,” you probably know this already: this is a tough watch to get through. I had to pause this movie at several points just to cry, just to feel the roller coaster of emotions that I was feeling. There’s a scene in this movie where you see pictures of kids in the foster care system that have been abused at their original homes, and I would be willing to bet money that those were real photos. Even though it was staged, just seeing the situations that some of these kids came from was very hard to endure. There’s a scene where a child is on the phone with the police because their mother is arguing with a drug dealer, and then bullet holes just start flying into the bathroom where the kid is hiding, just inches away from them. It was a lot.

But in the struggle, there is grace. In that way, I think this movie is a glimpse of heaven, and I’m going to explain why. What this movie does an excellent job at is allowing you to feel the sense of family from the Martins, which is the family that kicks off this adoption craze. Donna Martin is the wife of a reverend in a small town called Pome Trot, and despite the fact that they already have two kids, one of them with special needs, in the wake of her mother’s passing, she feels the call from God to adopt. That goes about as well as you think it would, right? I did really appreciate the fact that this movie did not stray away from the fact that, yeah, it’s hard to make an adjustment like that in your family. But there’s a line in this movie that I loved where Donna says, “The Father of us all uses one-way streets ’cause we’re not meant to turn back.”

After they adopt kids, more people in the town say, “Hey, I should adopt kids,” and that grows and grows and spreads throughout the community. But then when that other shoe drops, it drops on basically the entire town. This movie does a really good job of just placing you in the trenches with them. You really feel like you’re a part of this family through the good, through the bad, and through the ugly.

Now, I will say from a filmmaking standpoint, Angel Studios is really building a nice reputation for themselves in making very beautiful-looking movies. I mean, whoever they are hiring as their cinematographers is chef’s kiss. But this is the first movie where I noticed a significant amount of ADR. ADR stands for Automated Dialogue Replacement. So if they’re recording a scene in a place where it’s very loud or there’s a lot going on, they may re-record the person’s speaking lines on a different day and then they have to make it sync up perfectly with the original video. If you do this job correctly, nobody should be able to tell, but there were a couple of times in this movie where I was unfortunately able to tell, and it did take me out of certain parts.

There’s a scene in the movie where a kid is crying and her mother is trying to console her, and she has her arms around her and she’s just telling her like, “It’s okay, baby, it’ll be okay,” but her mouth isn’t matching up with the words that she’s speaking. In some shots, her mouth isn’t even moving whatsoever. Maybe I’m the only person that catches stuff like that, but it was at an emotional peak in the film and it did take me out of it just ever so slightly.

I do also think this movie is maybe about 10 minutes too long. There’s one kid’s story that we follow in particular named Terry, and this movie wants you to know that Terry is a troubled child. But the movie gives you like 10 different examples of how Terry is troubled and the trouble that Terry gets into. I feel like after the first few, it’s like, alright, we understand. But these are just nitpicks. I do not want to make it sound like I am tearing this movie apart. This is a really fantastic movie and I absolutely enjoyed it. These are just kind of the things that I’m starting to notice. Whatever formula Angel Studios is doing, they should keep doing it because it is working. I’m still waiting for my Cabrini 4K.

I do want to talk about the title of this movie, or rather the title change. I remember seeing the trailer for this movie in front of “Cabrini,” and at the time it was just called “Pome Trot.” In fact, when they sent me the screener to watch this movie about a month ago, it just said “Pome Trot” in the opening title sequence. It wasn’t until about a month ago that I started to see this movie be advertised as “Sound of Hope: The Story of Pome Trot.” It was clear in the marketing that they were trying to tie it to “Sound of Freedom.” I think one of the taglines was even like, “Sound of Freedom showed the problem, this movie shows the solution.”

But here’s the thing: I think this movie could have reached an entirely new audience of people if you didn’t try and connect it to “Sound of Freedom,” and if people didn’t have that association in their minds. Now look, I loved “Sound of Freedom” as a movie. I think it accomplished exactly what it set out to do, which was tell a story to raise awareness for a serious issue. But by the end of that movie’s theatrical run, it was so steeped in controversy, I don’t even think anybody was talking about the original issue of the film anymore. Because of that, I think if people see the title “Sound of Hope” and they don’t know anything about this movie except for the “Sound of Freedom” controversy, then they are going to say, “Nope, pass.” For this being a really good movie with no political agenda, with a strong and predominantly Black cast, based on a true story that swept the nation in the 90s, I just feel like this movie could have been marketed differently to cast a wider net, rather than just be like, “Oh, let’s get back all the people that watched ‘Sound of Freedom,'” because I guarantee you a few of those people are going to look at this movie and say, “Nope, pass.” That’s all I’m going to say about that. But I don’t know, that’s just my opinion. I like this movie with the original title.

To sum it all up, another great movie. I think Angel Studios is batting a thousand right now. I have not seen a film from them that I have been disappointed in yet. This is definitely a heavy film and I think that you should know that going into it. The only other movie I’ve seen on adoption was “Instant Family,” and this is not “Instant Family.” For my cinephile rating, I’m going to give this a 7 out of 10. For my Catholic rating, I’m going to give this a 7 out of 10. There’s a lot of good Christian dialogue in this movie, and I walked away with a lot of quotables like, “The Lord is not needed in Green Pastures” and “Love is kind, love protects, love does not give up, and love forgives.” Both make sense in the context of the film.

Guys, that is it for this video. I hope you enjoyed watching my review of “Sound of Hope.” No, it’s called “Pome Trot.” Once again, my name is Matteo Rivera, and until next time, a la vista.