September 22, 2023
In Tegucigalpa, Honduras, a financially-strapped man named Roberto (Jose Zuniga) was asked by an attractive woman named Giselle (Yessica Barroto) if he would allow his two children Rocio (Cristal Aparicio) and Miguel (Lucas Avila) to become models. He agreed to drop his two kids off with Giselle in an office in the city for the auditions. However, when Roberto came back to pick them up that evening, all he reached was an empty room.
Tim Ballard (Jim Caviezel) was an agent of Homeland Security assigned to cases of pedophiles and child pornography. Frustrated that they were not actually able to rescue any of the kids being sold in illegal websites, he pretended to be a pedophile himself to get more concrete results. An arrested pedophile named Ernst Oshinsky (Kris Avidisian) fell for his ploy and was able to arrange for Tim to meet up with a trafficked child.
This film tackled the very despicable crime of child trafficking. Not only do these criminals steal children from their parents, but they would then subject these children to unspeakable acts of depraved perversity. Every parent would sympathize with the plight of Roberto, who was of course wracked with guilt for putting his children directly in harm's way. The film was careful about the depiction of child abuse, but these were very disturbing nonetheless.
The main bulk of the film was telling the story of how Tim Ballard went over and beyond the call and scope of duty to rescue one particular victim -- the precious little Rocio. What we saw Ballard do to achieve his objective onscreen, defying all risks to the integrity of his family, his job and personal safety was indeed very impressive, too good to be all true. The cynical in the audience may question how much of this heroism was real-life or cinematic license.
To be completely objective, this was a typical based-on-true-events white-savior rescue drama at best. However, it has currently gained so much buzz owing to its unexpected box-office haul in the US, grossing almost 15x its original budget, certainly one of the most profitable indie films of all time. The reference to Christian faith in the narrative and Caviezel's earnest pay-it-forward appeal during the closing credits had worked in its favor. 7/10.
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