Freetown

I'm a Mormon, and that definitely contributes to my love of this film, but is hardly the only factor (Mormon films that I don't particularly like include "The Singles' Ward", "Church Ball", "Passage to Zarahemla", and "The Book of Mormon Movie"). I was not told to watch this by my church leaders, as some have cynically suggested - it is an independent film and the LDS Church had no involvement or stance on it at all. I watched a free special premiere screening and enjoyed it so much that I watched it twice more to support the filmmakers.

The film doesn't showcase much of the scope or background of the Liberian Civil War, but instead focuses on the experience of a handful of people trying to escape from it. Although these people are Mormons, and the film is targeted primarily at Mormons, the film's faith-affirming message is broad enough to appeal to believers of all stripes. More skeptical or atheistic people probably won't find it as appealing, which may partially explain why it was nominated for nine or ten Ghana Movie Awards but received many lukewarm or negative reviews in the U.S. Despite the missionaries' highly visible name tags, the film says little about specifically Mormon doctrine or practice, but preaches a generic message of hope and faith through adversity.

I found it to have a good mix of tension and humor that held my interest throughout. Some people say it's boring, and we'll just have to agree to disagree. Some have complained that graphic violence isn't actually shown on screen; I think this is a tasteful "less is more" approach that most modern filmmakers have sadly abandoned altogether in favor of shock value. I felt that the humor was used sparingly and wisely; it's not a hilarious movie by any means, but has some smile-worthy moments to reduce the tension. We don't learn much about the individual missionaries' backstories or motivations but their interactions with each other bring them to life as real, young, sometimes naive but goodhearted people. And of course the soundtrack, particularly the opening sequence and the recurring vocals, is phenomenal.

This was filmed in West Africa with almost exclusively West African actors - specifically Ghana, since the Ebola epidemic prevented them from filming on location. This is a unique and good move both for LDS and American films as a whole. It is, of course, based on a true story - which placed a lot of constraints on what liberties could be taken with the plot that some have derided - but it's one of those rare times when a film adaptation of necessity becomes *less* incredible than the reality. In the film, there are only seven people in the car, so as to fit the camera; in reality there were nine. In the film, they need to pass through three rebel checkpoints; in reality there were about fifty.

If you're not Mormon, I can't promise you'll enjoy this movie as much as I do, but if you're not anti-religious messages I encourage you to give it a shot.

Firstly the film put me to sleep, not a good start. I woke up the next day and tried to watch the rest. There's a few scenes in the film which offer suspense and the aspects of the Liberian civil war we see are quite dramatic, however this is not an action film. There are some scenes of action which are necessary to drive the plot and provide the reasons by which a small group of men must flee. However these are widely dispersed and the predominant point of the film is to deliver some fairly tedious messages of faith.

It may have done better if it were possible to understand how Khran can be identified as they're hunted. It may have been better if it'd explained why the missionaries hadn't just taken off their shirts and ties and blended in.

An unexciting story on the whole, combined with some awful acting. I hope that some of the money that this film might make has gone to enrich the lives of those without much. If it wasn't for the exceptional camera work and fascinating views of Liberia I'd have rated this a two.

You don't have to be Mormon or live in Salt Lake City or anywhere in Utah to enjoy this beautifully made film. The other great thing is it's based on reality. The music is breathtaking also. You just have to be thankful for people who are living their faith in the face of great adversity and can still manage to smile and show great friendship to one another. It's nice when a movie slows down a bit in spots to ponder the complexities of the situation. In doing that, this film emphasizes the drama, emotion, and difficulties these people lived through every day and the formidable decisions they and their loved ones had to make in order to survive. It's not a stuffy or prolonged movie at all, it was comical as well as full of depth. We actually couldn't stop watching it and didn't want to pause it when our phone rang. The rich music and singing made you feel you were actually in Africa. It really lent itself to the cultural beauty of the people and the area. We gave it 8 stars because movies like this are what we need to see coming from the film industry right now. We could all use more faith....faith in God, our families, friends and each other.

Two different cultures are being reflected in the reviews. I loved this movie. But then I also love things of good rapport. It often takes a lover of beauty to recognize and appreciate Beauty.

It was very boring and waste of time,it's true story about group of missionaries trying to survive the civil war in Liberia. It could be better if it was produced as documentary short movie or something for TV. but like this with those actors that I guess they never played any role before and they collect them by announcement " hey who wanna act?" and accepted them only because their color and they look like Liberians the screenplay,direction and every thing was bad,the true events was good and could be done better than that with better writer,director and some good actors but they totally ruined it. it's also Hallelujah movie, every single idea came to anyone of them will consider it a miracle and bless from god and so on. so finally it was boring and you can sleep in the middle of the movie and wake up to complete and it's gonna work