Freedomland (2006) Review

"Just nod your head."
-Karen Collucci



Detective Lorenzo Council (Samuel L. Jackson) is called to the hospital to interview Brenda Martin (Julianne Moore), the victim of a carjacking.  But during the interview, Brenda reveals that her son was in the backseat of her car when it was stolen.  The crime occurred near a predominantly African-American housing project, and Brenda's brother, (Ron Eldard), also a detective, leads a massive police force into the projects causing massive tension.  Council believes Brenda is hiding information and the race to find her son becomes more urgent as he tries to prevent a full-blown riot from erupting.


What Works:

Brenda Martin is a former junkie and has some severe emotional issues.  Julianne Moore plays the role brilliantly to the point where she is tough to watch.  Brenda is just so messed up, you feel bad for her, but a part of you suspects she knows more than she's letting on.  Moore rides the line fantastically and gives by far the best performance of the film.

The other highlight is Edie Falco who plays the leader of volunteer group that helps find missing kids.  Falco's character, Karen Collucci's son also went missing and this gives her the ability to empathize with Brenda better than the rest of the characters, but Karen also suspects that Brenda knows more than she is letting on and while trying to connect with her, she manages to manipulate Brenda into confessing her role in the tragedy.  It's actually a real interesting scene, a great performance from Falco, and a surprising direction to take this type of character.

Finally, the first act of the movie is solid.  It sets up the plot of the movie well and as soon as Council discovers there is a kid missing, the tension ramps up effectively.  It got me very excited for the rest of the film, which, unfortunately, was disappointing.


What Sucks:

The second and third acts of the film could not maintain the energy level set up the first act.  The movie starts to spin its wheels as the story takes awhile to move forward.  It's frustrating as Council seems to be intentionally slowing down the plot.  He doesn't follow procedure and let's himself become distracted repeatedly by everything that is going on.  He loses focus on the case and spends too much time talking to Brenda about nothing.  It didn't take much of the second act to make me lose interest in the film.

Detective Council is a problematic protagonist and not just because he gets sidetracked too easily, though that is a major problem.  We are supposed to like and root for this guybut he says some things to Brenda that are pretty awful.  He tells her that if her son is dead, than it is part of God's plan.  That's a pretty messed up thing to say to someone, especially for a cop.  The moment he said that, mixed with his lack of focus, I stopped liking the character.  It's fine to have an unlikable protagonist, but the movie treats the character like we are suppose to like him and admire him for what he said and I can't do that.

The movie tries to handle some pretty major racial issues, mostly involve police brutality, but boy is it sloppy.  There is absolutely no nuance or subtlety to the scenes involving the racial tension.  Each of those scenes comes off as very fake, mostly do the very stereotypical motivations from everyone involved.  In theory, this could have provided an interesting backdrop for a missing child investigation, but the poor execution makes it more distracting than anything.  What makes matters worse is the case is solved by the end of the second act.  The entire climax of the film involves a riot breaking out, but the reasons for the riot are poorly developed and unbelievable.  The characters are mostly cardboard cutouts and are not interesting in the slightest.


Verdict:

Freedomland started out strong with a solid first act and great performances from Moore and Falco, but a crappy lead character, poor pacing, and an uninteresting and poorly develop subplot turning into the focus of the film brings it down.  I certainly can't recommend it, which is a shame.  It certainly had potential.

 4/10: Bad 

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