Movie Review: Freedomland
Freedomland stars Samuel L. Jackson as Lorenzo Council, a New Jersey detective investigating the suspicious disappearance of a 4 year-old boy. This case is not your every day milk carton missing child. The boy’s mother Brenda (Julianne Moore) has claimed that her car was hijacked and her son inadvertently kidnapped by a black man. The Jersey police descend on the low-income community where the crime was allegedly committed, thus creating public fury in the predominantly black community. Local leaders complain that when blacks in the community are murdered they do not receive this kind of police attention and as racial tensions mount, Lorenzo must carefully try to maintain racial harmony while at the same time struggle to solve the mystery of the missing boy. He enlists the help of a local woman (Edie Falco) whose expertise is finding missing children and their search takes them to an abandoned children’s asylum called Freedomland Village, where they hope to unravel this baffling enigma.
My mother always taught me if I have nothing good to say then to not say anything at all and if that were the case I would probably end this review now. I don’t have a whole helluva lot good to say about Freedomland. I did not like this movie. It was long, drawn-out, predictable, boring and pretty much a complete train wreck. I felt like I was in the theatre for almost three hours and when the movie ended I realized it was barely two. That’s how painful this experience was – so much pain. Most of the scenes with Julianne Moore involve her crying with a pained look on her face, which I guess in her circumstances is understandable but they just seem to go on and on and on and get nowhere. She says nothing that makes sense. She cries. She acts like a lunatic. It’s excrutiating to watch. I guess her scene with Edie Falco (one of the saving graces of this movie) was pretty compelling but that’s pretty much the only memorable scene in an otherwise forgettable movie.
Sam Jackson does an okay job I suppose considering the script he was working with but whoever is advising him on his recent movie roles should be fired. The Man? XXX: State of the Union? Twisted? SWAT? For such a talented actor who stole the hearts of movie fans everywhere with several of his performances over the years, it looks like Jackson has been in one stinker after another in recent years. Freedomland may be the icing on the cake. Actually, The Man was probably the icing but Freedomland might be the cherry on top. This movie is so bland I’m not even sure I would recommend it to my biggest enemy, although I’m not even sure who that would be. Maybe Eli.
Perhaps I shouldn’t be so hard on the actors in this movie when really, the direction and the script seem to be the problem. This movie had more loose ends than a New York City hooker. Take for example, Brenda’s angry brother. He’s a cop. He seems to have a problem with black people. He seems to have a problem with Lorenzo. He’s angry the entire movie, storms into the police precinct, sees his sister being interrogated and then disappears forever. I really thought this guy was going to be an integral part of the movie but he just sort of vanishes and we never hear from him again. Even the whole idea of the Freedomland asylum – I’m not even sure what the purpose was of having that in the movie. It never even enters the movie until more than halfway through, is not mentioned before the search or after and the entire time on the Freedomland grounds lasts maybe fifteen, twenty minutes. And yet the movie still earns the title of Freedomland. Maybe this title made sense in the novel but whatever Freedomland represented in writing certainly did not translate well on the big screen.
Director Joe Roth’s other works include Revenge of the Nerds II, America’s Sweethearts and Christmas With the Kranks. Now he has brought us Freedomland. I am pretty sure Kranks ranked as one of the worst movies I saw in 2004. Freedomland is already a leading candidate for 2006 and it is only February. Please Mr. Roth, no more. I am begging you. (2 out of 10)
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