A Father's Promise (2023)

3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Disarming

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

What this documentary, filled with heartfelt musical performances, lacks in style it makes up for in sincerity and compassion, painting a stirring picture of heartbreak, and of striving to carry on.

Filmmaker Rick Korn tells the story of Mark Barden, the father of 7-year-old Daniel, who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting of December 14, 2012. A professional musician, Mark found his life changed forever after that day, becoming a gun-control activist, and helping to form Sandy Hook Promise, but finding it difficult to play music like he once did.

His activism took off in a big way, inspiring millions to join him in a continuing fight. Along the way, thanks to help from Sheryl Crow and Karen Fairchild of Little Big Town, he discovered, like his hero John Lennon, that music could be a great uniter. It could be a way to get people to come together and possibly find a way to agree that school shootings are not inevitable, but preventable.

The first thing that one notices about A Father's Promise is the footage and photos of Daniel, a wild-haired kid with a couple of missing teeth, looking forever like he's full to the brim with life and love. It's hard not to fall in love with these images and to feel the genuine pain of his family.

Indeed, when the movie covers the 2022 trial of right-wing radio host Alex Jones — who was sentenced to pay $1 billion in damages for lying to his listeners about the existence of the Sandy Hook shootings — and we see Jones gloating that "they will never see the money," Mark says, "we don't care about the money." And we believe him, totally. He's a man of principle.

We see Mark showing up for dozens of personal appearances, dozens of speeches, often tearful, standing next to Presidents Obama and Biden, and in a crowd with Martin Luther King Jr.'s offspring.

The choice to present the material in the context of music is a powerful one, as a selection of rootsy/bluesy/folksy/country tunes help the material seem less heavy and more human. By the time A Father's Promise ends, it becomes abundantly clear that the problem of mass shootings is solvable, even if the grief they have caused remains.