Freedomland

You can see a lot of promise in Freedomland. Everything about it seems to point to an intriguing little dramatic thriller. You've got a good set up, a racially charged storyline, strong performances by some very good actors, and most surprisingly of all, mostly competent direction by Joe Roth, a man whose previous films (which includes Revenge of the Nerds II and Christmas With the Kranks) made me wonder if the guy even had anything close to a good movie within him. He comes close here, but Freedomland is brought down by some confusing scenes and ham-fisted melodrama and dialogue, when the film should be honest and sincere. The movie's not as bad as the negative hype would lead you to believe, but you still see a lot of wasted potential.

When Brenda Martin (Julianne Moore) enters a local medical center with her hands covered in blood and a story of a carjacking, she is brought immediately to the attention of tough-talking investigator Lorenzo Council (Samuel L. Jackson). While questioning Brenda about what happened, she reveals a terrifying part of the story that she strangely did not mention initially to the doctors when she arrived - her 4-year-old son, Cody, was asleep in the backseat of the car when the jacker, a large black man from a local low-income housing project she states, threw her out of the car and drove off with it. Lorenzo knows the housing project area well, as he deals with a lot of the people in that area and he has a lot of respect amongst the locals. However, when the missing child becomes part of the case, he quickly finds himself losing control of his own investigation, as another officer who is also Brenda's brother (Ron Eldard) makes it his personal goal to track the carjacker down, and convinces the police force to initiate a lockdown in the project housing area, keeping everyone prisoners in their own homes until the guilty person is found.

This obviously does not sit well with the mainly black community of the area, who feel they are being punished by racist cops. Lorenzo is powerless to help the people who he has tried so hard to win the respect of, and what's more, the more time he spends with Brenda, the more he begins to question her integrity. She has a history of drug use, she's prone to wandering off, and her behavior seems very erratic and unusual. The search for her son becomes a national media frenzy, and even a group of local mothers who specialize in looking for missing children led by an honest and caring woman named Karen (Edie Falco from TV's The Sopranos) get involved. Racial tensions between the tenants of the projects and the police are mounting, and Lorenzo has a feeling that as he digs deeper for the truth that everything is going to explode like a time bomb.

Originally intended to be an Oscar hopeful with a December release date, Freedomland's mid-February release might make some think twice about purchasing a ticket. However, it's not all bad. In adapting his own novel to the screen, screenwriter Richard Price has crafted an intriguing story that pushes a lot of hot topic buttons ripped out of many real life situations. The film tackles such issues as media frenzies around missing persons, race riots, people who use race riots to their own advantage, and overall tensions between different types of people, whether it be race, wealth, or status symbol. Unfortunately, I think Mr. Price bit off a bit more than he could chew, as most of these aspects don't seem to have as much screen time devoted to them as they should have. I'm sure this story works really good in a novel format, but in a movie that runs just shy of under 2 hours, there's just too much plot and not enough time to get all the points across that I think the movie wanted to. And instead of treating these topics with honesty and realism, the movie takes everything so seriously to the point of overblown melodrama. You can tell this was originally intended to be an Oscar bait movie by the number of scenes that seem to scream to be used as clips when an actor's name is called. There are some good performances on display here, but Joe Roth often directs his scenes like there's an important development on the way, even if nothing actually happens.

The film also contains a number of scenes that make very little sense, or characters that seem to play important roles then disappear with little to no resolution. This hints that the movie was once much longer, and probably much better. A very good example is when the character of Brenda is walking down the street, and a black woman on the street tells her to stay away from her child. It has been established earlier that Brenda is a respected person in the community, as she volunteers at a local children's center, so the scene seems awkward and out of place. I also found it quite strange that Brenda would be placed in the personal care of Lorenzo without anyone monitoring or following them, especially given Brenda's past history and behavior. There are also some characters who seem to play a big role in the story, but then disappear, such as Brenda's brother, whose role in the story doesn't even have any resolution or even a climax. I have a strong feeling that an extended version on DVD could fill in some of the blanks, as I don't think anyone adapting their own novel to the screen would intentionally leave such gaping holes open. Or maybe I'm wrong, and this is Mr. Price's vision on the screen.

Although the film does not always work, when it does, it works well. I like it how the story does not take any sides in the issue of race. Both sides are wrong, and both sides manipulate in order to get their point across. There are a number of strong scenes, the most memorable of which is when Edie Falco's character has a quiet interrogation of Brenda. She starts talking about her own missing son, which led to her forming her group for missing children, and slowly turns it into her questioning Brenda about what happened that night. The performances from both Falco and Moore in this scene are real and genuine. In fact, all of the lead performances are strong all across the board. Sure, Samuel L. Jackson could play the role of the pissed off black guy in his sleep, but no one does it better than him, and he's still able to find ways to make her performance not seem like a complete rehash of past roles. Julianne Moore also takes on the difficult role of Brenda with seemingly great ease. We have our suspicions about the character almost from the beginning, but she is still able to make her sympathetic to us all the way through her character's development. And, when Joe Roth isn't trying to force Oscar clips upon us, the film is tightly directed and edited. It has a rapid pace that never becomes confusing, and actually helps to enhance the tension and mood of the scene.

I really wanted to fully support Freedomland. It seems to have all the right pieces. But, there are more than a couple pieces missing from the complex jigsaw puzzle that makes up the film's plot. (Lorenzo's turn from fully supporting Brenda to being suspicious of her seems to be forced and come without warning.) I think there is a very good movie here that got lost somewhere in the editing room. Freedomland fails in the end, but it doesn't go down without a fight. If anything, it does show that Joe Roth does potentially have a good movie in him, which is more than I ever thought I could say about him. Worth a look, but not much more than that.

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