Freedomland (2006)
Average Rating: 4.6/10
Reviews Counted: 149
Fresh: 35 | Rotten: 114
Poorly directed and overacted, Freedomland attempts to address sensitive race and class issues but its overzealousness misses the mark.
Average Rating: 4.8/10
Critic Reviews: 40
Fresh: 14 | Rotten: 26
Poorly directed and overacted, Freedomland attempts to address sensitive race and class issues but its overzealousness misses the mark.
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Average Rating: 2.7/5
User Ratings: 100,511
Movie Info
Joe Roth directs his adaptation of Richard Price's novel Freedomland from a script by the author. Samuel L. Jackson stars as a police detective who must investigate a distraught woman (Julianne Moore) who claims that her child was kidnapped by a black man. The accusation stirs up much racial animosity in the town. Edie Falco co-stars. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
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Cast
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Samuel L. Jackson
Lorenzo Council -
Julianne Moore
Brenda Martin -
Edie Falco
Karen Collucci -
Ron Eldard
Danny Martin -
William Forsythe
Boyle -
Aunjanue Ellis
Felicia -
Anthony Mackie
Billy Williams -
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Clarke Peters
Reverend Longway -
Marlon Sherman
Cody Martin -
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Freedomland Trailer & Photos
All Critics (154) | Top Critics (41) | Fresh (35) | Rotten (114) | DVD (13)
This mixed-up, self-important thriller is adapted by Richard Price from his own novel and wastes a talented cast.
Top CriticMoviemakers who exploit the suffering and death of children to ratchet up the dramatic stakes belong in the innermost circle of hell, but Freedomland -- clumsy and overwrought as it is -- earns the right to its harrowing trajectory.
What begins as a familiar kind of media-circus melodrama ends up being something much more complex and tangled.
A sometimes heavy-handed urban drama punctuated by some devastatingly effective scenes.
The performances all around are lousy -- histrionic and turgid, a most lethal combination.
Freedomland is, at best, a noble failure, which leaves the charred aftertaste of a burned opportunity.
A dazzling performance by Julianne Moore, backed by Samuel L. Jackson. A strong supporting performance by Edie Falco. The story is overwrought and uneven, but those performances had me interested from beginning to end.
Ridiculous
"Freedomland" is an infuriating movie made worse by incomprehensible monologues from its deranged protagonist.
As an excuse to examine urban malaise at novel length, this premise works; as a film drama, it feels both overlong and sketchy.
Clunky, disjointed and with a couple of subplots that linger and then vanish.
A compelling, beautifully written and impossible-to-put-down book has been turned into a mediocre film that seems self-important and listless.
An intensely engrossing melodrama, despite its ultimately squandering an opportunity to deliver an emotional payoff.
As I sat there watching the final slow motion image of a young man framed against the flames of a burning refrigerator box I couldn't help but think, "boy, I should have gone and seen Eight Below instead."
Not much of this is new territory, but it can be gripping at times.
Filme triste de temática complexa, surpreende por ter sido dirigido por um cineasta normalmente incompetente e traz performances brilhantes de Jackson e Falco (já Moore, apenas correta, carrega na caracterização).
Freedomland is a drama that plays like an episode of a TV cop show stretched beyond its limits.
Richard Price's dual plot, of the investigation and the escalating racial tensions that surround it, befuddles director Joe Roth from the very start.
Freedomland might just play to the MTV generation, but even they'll likely have trouble swallowing this particularly clumsy pill.
Flabby, dull and overlong, it's a B-grade movie with A-list talent and an inflated idea of its own importance. Think Tsotsi crossed with Clockers with the imagination of neither.
Promises much but doesn't connect in the same way as another recent film with racial themes, Crash.
Freedomland has an extremely strong opening sequence but its intriguing premise is quickly squandered in favour of overwritten speeches and a series of boring, nonsensical scenes that seem to go nowhere.
[The] thematic material is so far beyond [director Joe] Roth's reach, you feel that even offering him a stepladder wouldn't help.
If nothing else, Freedomland tries very hard to be a good film.
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Movie: ID: 19049981 Title: Freedomland Release Date: 2006-02-17 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
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Writer Richard Price has also made a screenplay for the film and it does have many interesting elements and powerful moments. I have to give credit to the exceptionally powerful first half of the film that grabs viewer from the throat. Once the clues begin to drop and the plot becomes more clear to us the film just packs a one dynamic moment after another. Ultimately it all ends up to an whimper and there is no clear resolution which story like this would have needed. There are just too many loose ends and too much material for it's own good. It would have needed a more minutes to it's running time to fully satisfy us in the audience. Now it all ends up too soon and with uneven results.
Acting is very solid when it comes to Samuel L. Jackson and Edie Falco here. Julianne Moore, while often impressive, instead goes a bit too overdrive here and her panic attacks begin to feel a bit more annoying than they might just intended to be.
Freedomland is solid, dark, powerful and mysterious little film that deserves to be seen. It might not be nothing more than a well made entertainment, but beneath it's surface is a story that has a important message and a relevant observations about us humans and our every day behaviour.