Freedomland
Buy this Double-sided poster at AllPosters.com
Review #38 of 365
Film: Freedomland [R] 113 minutes
WIP: $9.00
When 1st Seen: 17 February 2006
Where Viewed: Regal Cinemas Alamo Quarry 14, San Antonio, TX
Time: 7:25 p.m.
Review Dedicated To: Ingrid D. F. of Chicago, IL
 |  |
DVD | soundtrack |
First Freedomland may not be what you expect, especially if you are like I am and saw the preview a few months ago and were intrigued. While this is a suspenseful film, nearly a thriller, some of the action is derivative and gets drawn out a few too many times. Brilliantly cast with Samuel L. Jackson portraying officer Lorenzo Council and Julianne Moore as Brenda Martin, Freedomland starts off very good, prior to taking a detour from which, sadly, it never quite recovers. That detour led to a final product that is confused as to its purpose. The film starts out with a mother, Brenda Martin, giving an emotionally complicated, frightening statement to the police about her being carjacked in a particular part of town…with her 4-year old son in the back seat. However, Detective Council begins to see inconsistency in her story. In the interim, Brenda Martin’s brother, also a ranking member of the police force, commands the attention of the Police Commissioner who orders a lock-down of the African American neighborhood where the incident took place. Rightfully so, the residents immediately claim racism and begin to resist the obviously unethical and immoral and eventually illegal blockade of their neighborhood. The primarily Caucasian police force takes the neighborhood to task and mayhem ensues. Ultimately, this brings about major plot confusion as the film diverges into a chaotic tale of mixed message and purpose. Is it a film about race relations? Is it a film about child abduction? Is it a film about honesty, justice, and integrity? All the while, there is nagging doubt that Brenda Martin’s story as she eventually exhibits nearly every symptom for every textbook neurosis studied in Psych 101 as the hours and days since the critical events supposedly occurred. This, obviously, adds to the difficultly in focus in the film.
Mr. Jackson and Ms Moore both deliver powerful performances. Ms Moore, in particular, is outstanding, though viewers of her jaw-dropping 2004 film, The Forgotten, may see this role merely as an extension of that role where she plays the role of a mother whose son is killed in a plane crash. In any case, this role pushes her down a different psychological path that should not be revealed in this review. Suffice it to say, it is disturbing and shocking. As detective Council gets further into the truth, what he finds is the furthest from what anyone would suspect. Personally, I was disappointed in some ways by the plot turn and extremely disheartened by the choices the writer took to employ the ‘race card’ a nearly every turn. It certainly added to the volatility of the film and the potentially divisive impact it may have on audiences; but, I felt that, in the end, it forced the focus of the film in too many directions as to have a distracting and deconstructive effect. The actions of the police were continually minimized and justified in a way that simply should not stand in today’s society.
This film is a heart-pounding experience that will pull you emotionally left and right. It will have different impacts on different people, most of it probably not positive. I respect some of the intentions, but I wish screenwriter (Richard Price) and Director (Joe Roth) had been given the film more focus and really decided what story they really wanted to tell. I feel the end result would have been a more powerful experience for filmgoers.
Available for Purchase or Pre-Order on DVD
Find your movies at MoviesUnlimited.com.
Freedomland [DVD](2006) DVD
Freedomland (2006)/S.W.A.T. (2003) [DVD] DVD
Freedomland (2006)/S.W.A.T. (2003) (Widescreen Versions) [DVD] DVD
| Book | Soundtrack | VHS |
| DVD | Related DVD | Related DVD |
No comments:
Post a Comment