Movie Review: Freetown

Synopsis:

A group of native Liberian missionaries make a desperate cross-country trip through their war-torn country to save one of their own. 

My rating: 4.5 out of 5

Last Thursday night, my dad, Sarah, and I went to see Freetown. So far it's the only movie in theaters that I was actually interested in (I cannot WAIT for the summer blockbusters--Avengers 2!!!!!!).

I didn't know much about this movie besides the synopsis above, but I left feeling really happy that I'd seen it.

But first, I just have to point out that there are a lot of LDS movies coming to theaters this year. I'm pretty sure this was the first time in my life when I went to an LDS movie, and every trailer that played before it was for another LDS movie! Usually they use Disney movie trailers or something, but they filled the whole 10-minute trailer space with LDS stuff. It was really cool to see.

Anyways, Freetown was beautiful. It was so authentic. I expected there to be at least one white missionary in the mix or some nice white people to help them out, because frankly that's how every movie set in Africa usually is. I've never seen a movie before where the entire cast was native African and actually filmed in Africa. In Freetown, most of the movie was shot on location, everyone was actually from Liberia, and there were only two white people in the entire cast. They only appeared for two minutes, tops. It was awesome.

It was actually kind of hard to understand what the characters were saying, though. They had such strong Liberian accents that a lot of the dialogue went over my head. And I've studied African accents before, so I can only imagine how general audiences struggled to tell what they were saying. When it comes out on DVD, I'll have to watch it with subtitles...

The missing dialogue didn't detract from the story, though. You could easily get the general gist of what they were saying and doing, and the characters were wonderful. They had such a happy, positive outlook despite their situation, and the film did a great job of showing how genuinely loving and enthusiastic these missionaries were for life and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It also did a great job of showing the dangers of war-torn Africa. There were too many instances for me to recount without giving away the whole movie, but the most poignant shot for me was near the beginning when you see a rebel fighter moving slowly through the jungle with an AK-47. You expect him to attack or be attacked and for there to be this horrific war scene. Instead, into the frame steps a group of missionaries and Church members, just trying to reach a waterfall where they can hold a baptism without interruption--the rebel fighter acting as their protector. It was beautiful.

The music was good, the acting was great, and the story was pretty darn amazing. It left me appreciating the relatively easy life (and mission!) I have. I learned so much from this film--both about Liberia and about living true to yourself and to your faith, no matter the danger.

The only reason I didn't give it a perfect 5/5 was because it never made me cry, the soundtrack was pretty limited, and there was one preachy moment that pulled me out of the story a bit too much.

"But Carly, you don't like crying in movies!" I know. But when I go to a movie that's about genocide and missionaries, I expect at least a happy spiritual moment or a heart-wrenching death. This was a really inspiring, interesting movie, but I never felt close to tears, and that was a little anticlimactic for me.

"But Carly, you just said that you liked the soundtrack!" Yes, I did. But it also sounded a lot like the Saratov Approach soundtrack, and they used the exact same song for every traveling scene, which only reminded me that there were a lot of traveling scenes.

"But Carly, it's a Mormon movie! And it wasn't even that preachy!" Well of course I liked the spiritual themes and messages, but there was just this one part where they're huddling in an apartment, worried for their lives, trying to decide what to do, and the woman with them stands up and shares her whole conversion story. It had a point in the end, but when she started, it didn't seem to have anything to do with the current situation, and it pulled me away from the tense moment.

Really, those are the only things. The movie was great, and I will gladly watch it again. I hope there will be many more of these kinds of movies to come. It's not even necessarily the missionary aspect that draws me in now--it's the introduction to different ways of life that I've never thought of before.