Review of Freedomland (2006) by Chris T — 03 Jul 2007

Julianne Moore plays the perfect nutbar in this film. She plays it to a "T" and is completely and utterly annoying to watch. She drags her silence on way too long. Yes, I know, she's supposed to be "mute" but the way it's directed leads you to believe she is guilty from the getgo, and the withholding really bogs down the tempo of the movie.

Jackson is Jackson as the "urban" cop who the ghetto recognizes and knows.

The problem with this movie is that it feels like it may have been over 2 hours long originally and then they just decided to slice out huge chunks of it. I can appreciate the racism card that is played out in this film nicely in some riot scenes that are pretty intense, but a lot gets lost here.

Jackson and Moore have as much chemistry as a tub full of water and a stereo within inches of falling in.

The movie lacks that extra edge that would push this to be a decent movie. Ultimately it suffers from its own internal errors as it seems really rushed and the ending was clipped together at the last second.

Many questions go unanswered including what happens between Jackson's Lorenzo character and that of Ron Eldard's at the conclusion. And what was up with Lorenzo's asthma? That was never clearly explained either. And some of the characters in the ghettos of Dempsy could have been slied out. Overall, a very simple movie, with a complicated backdrop, made more complicated by it's editing and inability to fully finish telling the story.