Freedomland (2005)
Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins
Theatrical Release: Feb 17, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $12,260,586
Synopsis: Richard Price's novel FREEDOMLAND is brought to life in this 2006 adaptation. A carjacking-turned-kidnapping provides the set-up for a complex story of racial and class divide, as black detective Lorenzo Council (Samuel L. Jackson) attempts to uncover the truth in victim Brenda Martin's... Richard Price's novel FREEDOMLAND is brought to life in this 2006 adaptation. A carjacking-turned-kidnapping provides the set-up for a complex story of racial and class divide, as black detective Lorenzo Council (Samuel L. Jackson) attempts to uncover the truth in victim Brenda Martin's story. Bleeding and dazed in an inner city ER, Brenda (Julianne Moore) explains that on her way home from work in the projects of fictional Dempsey, New Jersey, a black man assaulted her and stole her car. Matters are intensified when it's revealed that her 4-year-old son was asleep in the backseat. Novelist Price (CLOCKERS), who also wrote the screenplay, has never shied away from the blunt realities and moral ambiguities of the contemporary urban experience. Though Price's vision is often unrelentingly bleak, and his characters are far from saintly , there's a weary hopefulness that birddogs them throughout. Stars Jackson and Moore turn in performances as incendiary as the film's subject, and the excellent supporting cast (Edie Falco and Anthony Mackie, among them) tackles these complex characters with both nuance and fire. Director Joe Roth (CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS) is given the monumental task of bringing Price's epic to the screen and his visual approach works well--all cinematic chiaroscuro and icy hues. Still, Price's themes of racial and class tension are rough, murky waters and require both a bold vision and a deft touch. As much as Roth is clearly passionate about the task at hand--setting an emotional fever pitch from the word go--the hopeful resolution he desires is not so easily attained, if attainable at all. FREEDOMLAND is a tough one, and although flawed, in the end, it's an emotionally complex, politically provocative film worth viewing. [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Julianne Moore, Edie Falco, William Forsythe, Ron Eldard
DVD Info
Release:
Jul 1, 2008
UMD Features:
- Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 2.0 - English, Spanish
- Subtitles - English, French, Spanish - Optional
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
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).
This mixed-up, self-important thriller is adapted by Richard Price from his own novel and wastes a talented cast.
Freedomland is a drama that plays like an episode of a TV cop show stretched beyond its limits.
Moviemakers 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.
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.
Related Forums

by: jackcoleman0518 2/12/06
Pictures
Trailers & Clips
News
posted by Gitesh Pandya March 05, 2007
Moviegoers rallied behind the star-driven comedy "Wild Hogs," which raced to number one at the North...
posted by Gitesh Pandya February 15, 2007
Five new films, each targeting its own audience, cram into North American multiplexes giving moviegoers plenty of...
posted by Tim Ryan August 17, 2006
This week at the movies, we've got snakes.... on a plane ("Snakes on a Plane," starring Samuel L. Jackson),...
posted by Scott Weinberg February 21, 2006
Disney's family adventure flick "Eight Below" narrowly defeated the spoof comedy "Date...


Top Critic