“Freedomland” clearly was an important film for Joe Roth – so important that the esteemed Hollywood executive decided he had to direct it himself.
Sadly for Roth and stars Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore, “Freedomland” will be inconsequential to audiences. The movie has nothing insightful to say about the social issues it tackles – racial unrest, police authoritarianism, the tragic outcomes that can arise from the pressures of single parenting.
“Freedomland” is an exercise in bleakness and tedium occasionally broken up by shrill clashes between the two leads and poorly staged, stereotypical confrontations between white cops and black citizens.
Adapted by Richard Price from his own novel, “Freedomland” opens with a promisingly moody title-credits sequence in which Moore meanders in distracted confusion through the tough black housing projects of a New Jersey town bordering on a blue-collar white enclave.
Moore’s Brenda Martin ends up at a hospital emergency room, treated for cuts and bruises and claiming she’s a victim of a carjacking by a black man. After police detective Lorenzo Council (Jackson) shows up to take her statement, Brenda spills the beans: Her 4-year-old son was asleep in the back seat of the car and now is missing.
Minutes into the movie, this discovery is followed by bellowing between Moore and Jackson that’s so shriekingly over-the-top, “Freedomland” never recovers.
White police storm-troop into the neighborhood to find Brenda’s boy and nab his abductor, while terrorized black residents respond with rage. Roth seems to be using the carrot-and-blow-torch method of directing, rewarding actors for their excess and scorching their bottoms to elicit more frenzied performances when they’re not yelling loudly enough.
“Freedomland” is rated R. Rating: 1½ out of 4 stars.
Comments are no longer available on this story