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Several years ago, Samuel L Jackson announced at the MTV Movie Awards that he is “one badddd mother . . . “ With Freedomland, he may have very well gone from bad to worse.
Freedomland begins with a captivating scene where Julianne Moore’s character (Brenda) is wondering in a daze at night through a rough black neighborhood. Her hands are bleeding as she stumbles into a local hospital for help. Samuel L. Jackson’s character (Inspector Lorenzo Council) is called in to investigate. When she finally tells him that her car was hijacked by a black man and her four year old son was in the back seat, all hell breaks loose when the cops converge on the black neighborhood looking for the missing white boy. After the initial impressive scene, the movie looses cohesiveness and interest. It tries to intertwine two stories, one depicting racial tensions and one telling the mystery of what happened to the boy, and does neither well. Inspector Council is sure there is more to Brenda’s story than what she is saying and enlists the help of a missing children’s organization (led by Edie Falco’s character) to help discover the hidden truth. Meanwhile, the black and white communities clash, each blaming the other for years of crime and injustice. Although the audience holds onto hope that there may be a cleaver and intriguing twist to the story that reveals the mystery, they are disappointed by a depressing ending of deceit and death.
Freedomland is a powerful presentation of a very tragic and ill-constructed story. Amazing acting and superb filmmaking are, unfortunately, overshadowed by a tale that no one should want to tell, because no one will want to hear it. In the end, every character in this movie is a victim, and so it serves only to remind its audience that bad things can and do happen. Though its lesson may be essential, its context is far from entertaining.
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