CLARISSA JONES
Contributing Writer
In a country where hundreds of thousands of children go missing each year, a film about a missing child should not only make a great movie, but it makes a strong political statement too. “Freedomland” attempts to make this statement but is silenced by a poor storyline and mediocre performances.
The story takes place in Dempsy and Gannon, two neighboring towns in New Jersey. Dempsy, a predominately black community, and Gannon, a predominately white community, have a history of racial animosity between them.
Samuel L. Jackson plays Lorenzo Council, a well-respected detective in Dempsy. He portrays the cool, tough character with the swagger and attitude for which Jackson is well known. To keep the audience from getting bored with this character, they throw in an asthma problem, which flares up in one scene and is then forgotten. He is assigned to a case of a stolen car and he finds the situation is more serious. There is a child sleeping in the back of the car.
Brenda Martin, played by Julianne Moore, is the mother of the missing child. Her situation seems sad, yet it is hard to feel sorry for her because something about her does not seem right. Her story does not add up, and her credibility is questioned even more when her history of drug use is revealed.
Throughout the film, the audience is wondering if she is still using drugs, and why she reported her car stolen and reveal an hour later that her son, Cody, was in the car.
Moore gives a dismal performance. Instead of evoking sympathy, the audience ends up being annoyed by her character, who stammers oddly in tense moments. She ends up leading police on a pointless search, which causes the plot to seem like it is going nowhere.
To make matters worse, Brenda Martin’s brother, Danny Martin, is a detective from Gannon. Detective Martin, played by Ron Eldard, is determined to find his nephew by any means necessary. He is pointing fingers at all the wrong people and interfering in Council’s investigation. Although there is no clear antagonist, Danny Martin doubles as victim and villain.
Because the abduction occurred in Dempsy, and Brenda Martin identified the suspect as a tall, black male, police believe the suspect is hiding somewhere in the city. To find the suspect, police from Gannon put the city on lockdown. Tensions increase until a riot breaks out between black residents and white police officers armed with nightsticks.
The search for Cody finally moves to Freedomland, a children’s asylum that closed down more than 50 years ago. Even though there is no evidence that leads police to believe the boy is there, but they go anyway. The entire scene at Freedomland was intended to create a feeling of horror or suspense.
Unfortunately, it fell short. It is safe to say, without giving too much away, that the meaning of Freedomland is not significant enough to be the title of the movie.
So what is this story about, finding a missing boy, or a heated racial war between cities? There is no way of knowing for certain. It seems the two main storylines clash and should have been made into separate films. However, neither storyline is strong or interesting enough to stand on its own.
At 113 minutes, it is not unusually long. However the slow-moving storyline makes the film seem unbearably lengthy. There is not enough suspense to keep the audience interested, and the only edge-of-your-seat excitement occurs when the credits start rolling.
03-23-2006
