CRACKUP AT THE RACE RIOT : Joe Roth’s ‘Freedomland’ [5/10]

Like Crash? Freedomland might be right up your (dimly-lit, litter-strewn, vaguely menacing) alley: another heavygoing tale of racial strife in urban America, albeit without the multi-strand plotting and dopey coincidences. The screenplay is by Richard (Clockers) Price, based on his own novel – which is apparently a real doorstop of a book. Though it's anybody's guess why the action is set in 1999, he's therefore done quite well to condense the material down to 113 minutes. Unfortunately for all concerned, director Roth can't get a grip on the material: indeed, some of the early scenes are rather embarrasingly clunky handled, and (as with his dire America's Sweethearts) one does have to ask whether Roth would continue to get such work if he wasn't the head of his own studio?

Then again, Roth's Revolution Pictures bankrolled Paul Thomas Anderson's peerless Punch-Drunk Love, so we don't want to be too harsh on the poor chump. Even if he is one of the very few directors to ever have elicited a less-than-stellar performance from Julianne Moore – here stuck in yet another distraught-mother role here (Roth produced The Forgotten, a rather pulpier but much more accomplished workout for the actress). 

Her ex-drug-addict character inadvertently sparks a racial crisis when she alleges that her young son has been kidnapped via a carjacking incident. Tough-talking but sympathetic Cop Samuel L Jackson (he can play such roles in his sleep, but he's arguably the best thing about the portentously-titled Freedomland) smells something fishy about her story. Cue shouty histrionics and much can't-we-all-get-along hand-wringing. The actors don't seem to be getting much help from Roth: it takes a while for Moore and Jackson to find their level, and it takes a remarkably composed supporting performance from Edie Falco (as a bereaved mother now helping others through difficult circumstances) to calm things down and allow the overwrought plot to (belatedly) engage our attention.

Neil Young
26th April, 2006 (rewritten 11th May)

FREEDOMLAND : USA 2006 : Joe ROTH : 113 mins
seen at Cineworld cinema, Sunderland (UK), 24th April 2006 (press show)