Freedomland

February 20, 2006

Rated: R Runtime: 112 min Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Set in 1999 New Jersey this movie follows the carjacking of Brenda Martin (Moore) as well as the apparent kidnapping of her 4 year old son, and the detective assigned to find the boy (Jackson). That is the long and short of it and as much as I disliked this movie it would probably be best for everyone if I stopped there…. but that’s not me so sit right back and I will spin the yarn for ya anyway. My obligation is to inform so that’s just what I plan to do.

Freedomland Moore’s character Brenda, stumbles into a local ER with her hands covered in blood, babbling about her car being jacked by a young black male. Cops arrive and begin to question her and it isn’t long before the officers realize she is either A. completely out of it or B. Hiding something; So they call in detective Lorenzo Council to get to the bottom of it. Council meets with Brenda and begins to question her further about the reason she would be in such a dangerous part of town (she’s white, the neighborhood isn’t) that late at night - even though she had already told the other cops she was there because of work. Lorenzo doesn’t believe her and neither did I; It would spoil too much if I told you I was right so ignore that line and keep reading.

The place the incident occurred is a very low rent black housing project and since the boy that is missing is white, there is a racial powder keg brewing and detective Council has to solve this case before the white cops of Gannon (an imaginary white section of Imaginary Dempsey NJ), decide to do their own investigation their way and ignite the above mentioned keg. To make matters worse, Brenda’s brother is a detective on the Gannon police force and will do anything to get his nephew back alive. Council knows Brenda’s lying but he just can’t prove it, he knows if he doesn’t solve this case really fast that both the cops and residents of the apartment building are going to choose sides and, then their will be no way at all to stop what he feels will be the inevitable� all out war!

Lorenzo turns to local missing child expert Karen Collucci (Falco) to help him find this kid and end this mess one way or the other. They do their part and the killer is found and brought to justice… I won’t say who it is, so don’t bother asking but this movie sucks so bad I don’t know why you would care. If you have nothing better to do when it makes the cable run and you are all out of DVD’s to watch I suggest you try and stomach this POS, otherwise avoid it at all costs.

Freedomland only lures you in by pretending to be a thriller about a kidnapped child, so don’t be fooled! This film is about as subtle as nails on a chalkboard when it comes to it’s message of racial inequality and police brutality… which really was the point of the film; The kid being kidnapped was just the bait to sell the ticket. I warn you that these two subplots (yeah right, they are the plot) are so heavy handed you lose sight of the device that tricked you into spending your money in the first place. In conclusion; This movie is just plain BAD! From the annoying accent Julliane Moore uses, right down to the racial stereotypes that this sucky director shoves down our throats for two hours. We get it Joe Roth, racism exists… problem is you don’t have the skills to tell this story so I recommend you stick to Revenge of the Nerds 5 and let guys like Paul Haggis handle this kind of story. It�s just too much for you!

Posted by J.C. Edwards | Filed Under 1 Stars, Drama, Edie Falco, Jullianne Moore, R, Ron Eldard, Samuel L Jackson, Theatrical, William Forsythe