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Freedomland, 2006

Starring: Julianne Moore, Samuel L. Jackson, Edie Falco

Directed by: Joe Roth

Written by: Richard Price

Language: Italian, English

Country: USA

Runtime: 113 min

MPAA Rating: R

Rating:5.0

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Profile of Freedomland

The mood of Freedomland is tense, rough, and suspenseful. The plot centers around a missing child, racism, and a police detective. It is a drama, crime, and thriller movie. In approach, Freedomland is serious and realistic. It takes place, at least partly, in a hospital and in an urban environment. The setting is New Jersey. Freedomland happens in contemporary times.

Summary of Freedomland

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.

Details

Language:	Italian, English
Country:	USA
Release date:	17 February 2006
Runtime:	113 min

Cast and Crew See all

Julianne Moore

as Brenda Martin

Samuel L. Jackson

as Lorenzo Council

Edie Falco

as Karen Collucci

Photos See all

Freedomland (2006)

Clips See all

Freedomland: Official Trailer

Freedomland: Home Video

Freedomland: Theatrical

Freedomland: Where Is Your Son?

Critics Reviews See all

TV Guide

Hugely ambitious and driven by Julianne Moore, Samuel L. Jackson and Edie Falco's fine, intense performances, Richard Price's adaptation of his own sprawling novel about a racially charged kidnapping that turns a volatile New Jersey town into a... Full Review

|
by: Maitland McDonagh

Entertainment Weekly

Moore doesn't just act. She goes on the attack, embracing the kind of lower-rung-of-the-middle-class role that actresses from Jodie Foster to Meryl Streep have long savored. Her performance is an achievement of sorts, yet, like the movie itself,... Full Review

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by: Owen Gleiberman

Users Reviews See all

This movie was awful. It wasn't the very emotional material of race relations or of police violence or of missing children. Not even the idea of a parent who might kill their own child. No. It was awful, because: 1. It failed to keep a cohesive... Read and rate it

26.May.2010
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by: JenM
JenM rated this movie0/10

This movie is a darn shame--and a darn mess. What an interesting premise and an interesting cast, but the follow-through is non-existent. Julianne Moore essentially plays the pharmacy scene from 'Magnolia' for the ENTIRE MOVIE, which is more than a... Read and rate it

20.March.2009
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by: sethdellinger
sethdellinger rated this movie0/10

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