Freedomland Details

Awesome!

Jackson is one of my favourite actors and Freedomland reveals why. Class acting and a plot with some nice twists make this a cracking movie.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Freedomland

What happened to Julianne Moore? A run of performances from Boogie Nights to Far From Heaven saw some, myself included, talking her up as the finest actress of her generation and then... The Forgotten (aptly titled), Laws of Attraction and now Freedomland.

Freedomland is a dull mystery with a solution so obvious and so deathly dull that even if the finding of that solution were better told this would still be a bad film.

What really drops it into the doldrums though is the direction. Joe Roth has little idea how to tell a story like this, his main detective character (Samuel L Jackson) does sod all detecting, his handling of the race issue is both broad and ham fisted and his visuals are as pathetically cliche as his cutting. Chief among Roth's crimes though is his directon of his fine cast. Samuel L Jackson plays Samuel L Jackson only this time he's got a hat. Roth's direction appears to extend as far as 'shout this bit' though, to be fair, 'Kiss my ass Brother-f**ker' is vintage cursing from Jackson. Moore is handled even worse. She can do hysterical (see Magnolia) but here Roth has clearly just said 'Bigger' to her each and every take until her performance is so shrill and annoying that it's like a pneumatic drill working away in your brain.

Edie Falco is better but her character is monumentally pointless, eventually doing little more than telling Jackson what he already knows.

This is a boring muddled film but with Falco and an excellent, sadly brief, supporting turn from William Forsythe it just avoids a bottom grade.