Freedomland Review
by samseescinema (sammeriam AT comcast DOT net)February 20th, 2006
Freedomland
reviewed by Sam Osborn of www.samseescinema.com
rating: 2 out of 4
Director: Joe Roth
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Julianne Moore, Edie Falco, William Forsythe) Screenplay: Richard Price (based on his novel)
MPAA Classification: R (language and some violent content)
Freedomland tells a story that runs round and round on rusty wheels that spin on a rusty track; a story that desperately wants to be gritty and powerful, but doesn't have the brawn or the brains to do so. Its first 90 minutes go nowhere, seeming to grow tired even with itself. But as the dust settles from the mystery's solution, the characters finally come to form. It's as if the film was written entirely for the closing 23 minutes of the denouement. These final scenes are some of the best I've seen this year. But is a touching epilogue worth the ten dollars of admission, plus the hefty fee of waiting through the first 90 minutes? Probably not. Freedomland is a broken, repeating picture; and although it boils with talent and opportunity, the execution is channeled down the wrong avenues at the wrong times, turning the film into a crippled half-satisfying experience.
It surrounds the kidnapping of a 4 year-old boy. Brenda Martin (Julianne Moore) stumbles into the E.R. with sliced, bloody hands, reporting herself as a victim of a car jacking and later revealing to Detective Council (Samuel L. Jackson) that her son was asleep in the vehicle at the time of the incident. Catching wind of the situation is Brenda's brother, Danny Martin (Ron Eldard), who decides immediately to blockade the Armstrong Projects Neighborhood so as to smoke out a suspect for the crime. The blockade sparks a racial outcry, the residents of the Armstrong Buildings bemoaning racial generalizations, and piling added pressure on Detective Council (their regular local cop) to help them get back to their homes. Waiting on the sidelines is Karen Collucci (Edie Falco) and her army of investigators, whose self-ordained duty is to assist authorities in the search for missing children.
Richard Price drives the vehicle of Freedomland's tale, having written both the novel and the adapted screenplay used here. It's obvious that on paper, Freedomland appears intriguing: dropping an African-American Detective in the middle of a political whirlwind of race, parenthood, police work, and crime--not to mention that he's asthmatic. But what may have worked fine in prose form falls flat when put to the screen. The film has been labeled a Thriller, but Price's tale takes the thrill out of this usually rousing genre. The answers to the kidnapping mystery are easy to extract, but Detective Council deems it unnecessary to fully interrogate his victim, Brenda. They circle around each other in half-formed dialogues, while Detective Council continually takes heat from all the parties involved. Director Joe Roth should have realized Price's error in the screenplay, and done something to right the wrong. But Roth's directing filmography is patchy at best (Christmas with the Kranks, America's Sweethearts, Revenge of the Nerds 2) and his inexperience shows through. He lets the screenplay take its toll, digging deep grooves into its already circular track, allowing his characters to talk and talk and talk but never actually get anywhere.
The film, however, cannot be blamed on its cast. Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore do especially fine work here. They've often laughed though their interviews, reporting that they had a blast working with each other on the project and, thankfully, this chemistry shows through. Moore plays a mother whose brain is heavily diluted by fear and distraction. She wanders and stumbles about her role, refusing to reveal any vestige of normality. Her character swears she's clean and sober, but her constantly meandering countenance says otherwise. Jackson counters such a character with spotless style and smarts. His character's cool and hip, but not without depth and sincerity for this pressure-cooked situation.
The story may not affect us, but at least the characters are dimensional enough to be changed by it. As the solution to the mystery comes and goes, Brenda and Council each develop further, reacting to the resolved situation with great reality. Price's screenplay finally finds success in these final scenes, where his characters are allowed to interact without the hum-drum pressures of the story. It's as though the circular track of Price's narrative was finally broken by the mystery's solution, and Brenda and Council are finally allowed to become human.
-www.samseescinema.com
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