Sound of Freedom (2023) review

Department of Homeland Security Special Agent Tim Ballard (Jim Caviezel) learns about sex trafficking in Honduras where children are led to believe they're getting hired to be models but instead "sold" off as slaves, so he travels below the North American border, partners with well-connected Vampiro (Bill Camp) and risks his life to try to rescue the little ones.  Let me get it out of the way and say that the subject itself is revolting and tragic - and it's based on real events - but the treatment of it here is overbearing and the storytelling is incompetent: this is a topic to be treated with delicacy, but Monteverde cranks up the over-embellished soundtrack while almost all of his characters (especially Caviezel) weep frequently.  I normally don't take a look at the Christian Nationalist side of the cinema, but with this (allegedly) raking in $217 million at the box office (it was one of the most successful summer movies of 2023), I felt I had watch it ... and sure enough, many of the extreme right-wing "talking points" are tucked in there: pedophile Oshinsky (Kris Avedisian) is "coded" as being Jewish, Latin Americans are regarded as degenerates and white people are the true saviors of humanity (this is also the same schizo-audience that believes "liberal elites" are "Satanists" who drink the blood of kids).  It's curious how the release of this coincided with the actual Ballard accused of sexual harassment by multiple women and forced to resign from his own organization ... but hey, at least they're adults.