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Freedomland
Sony Pictures Releasing


4.7

based on 35 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 38 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for language and some violent content

Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Julianne Moore, Edie Falco, Ron Eldard, William Forsythe, Aunjanue Ellis, and Anthony Mackie

A criminal investigation into an alleged kidnapping of a child by a suspect who is presumed to be a local from the projects ignites long-simmering racial tension between two neighboring New Jersey towns. (Sony Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Crime \| Drama \| Mystery \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Richard Price (also novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Joe Roth
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: May 30, 2006 Theatrical: February 17, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	112 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden

The film is, above all, a moving portrait of hurting souls, brought to life in compelling performances.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

At the finish, the filmmakers give us at least three different endings, probably because they have no idea what Freedomland is saying, probably because it's not saying much of anything. But a film with this many virtues can't be written off as just another average entry.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The film doesn't lose its way emotionally; it's full of great monologues about loss and responsibility.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Strong acting is one of the film's hallmarks. It has been a while since Samuel L. Jackson has given a performance with this much intensity.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Its focus--the children--are not even onscreen very much. But their ghosts are everywhere, and the pain of the film is primal.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

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, it's also strenuous and joyless.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

If Freedomland reminds you of Spike Lee's "Clockers," that's not by accident. Like that film, it's adapted by Richard Price from his novel and is set in the neighboring Northern New Jersey communities of Dempsy, predominantly poor and African-American, and the largely white blue-collar suburb of Gannon.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Like most Price movies, it's challenging, engaging and free of the usual thriller cliches.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

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 powder keg tries to tell too many stories in too little time.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Moore is as gutsy an actress as there is today, and I'm not sure I've seen a star as dressed down for a psychological unpeeling since Jessica Lange in "Frances," in 1982, or farther back, Olivia de Havilland in 1948's "The Snake Pit." It's strong stuff.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Price has written a screenplay that may be complex and ambitious to a fault.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

First-rate actors bail out second-rate directors all the time, and Freedomland serves as the latest example.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

An unexpectedly troubling crime thriller.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Unfortunately, the waste of artistic possibilities dwarfs the human wreckage - and the human salvage - in Freedomland.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Freedomland, overall, could have been so much better. But Moore, even in a performance as patchy as this one, is something to watch. She's an echo of the movie that might have been.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

A slight, not entirely engaging mystery with slight overtones about the dangers of racial profiling that, unlike "Clockers," treats its urban-plight theme as a backdrop, instead of its main subject.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Individual scenes feel authentic, but the story tries to build bridges between loose ends.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

This would have made a fascinating film if Freedomland were one movie. Instead, it turns into several movies, none fully realized. What could have been an unusually smart police procedural becomes a sprawling, overwrought melodrama that itself morphs into a sort of spiritual romance.

Premiere Jessica Letkemann

Surrounding Council and Moore in this cacophonous, bleak New Jersey are a set of cops, neighbors, and relatives played by actors that the unimaginative Roth yanked directly from various TV gritty crime shows; it's like he thought HBO was his personal casting agent.

Variety Brian Lowry

Despite a few raw moments, pic feels like a Lifetime movie with a marquee cast.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Only Edie Falco, appearing as a bereft mother leading a citizen's group that searches for missing children, suggests the great film that Freedomland might have been.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Ordinarily it's kind of hard to screw up a Richard Price story, but the writer is his own worst enemy here, with a screenplay so filled with bromides and object lessons from God, you can't tell what he's trying to say.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

The problem lies not in the plotting alone. Roth's direction does nothing to bring clarity to the story and its characters, and his blocking of the film's action scenes is downright muddled and vague.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Anyone who has seen the trailers for Freedomland, which don't exactly skimp on maternal angst, already knows this is going to be a sad-mommy story. What we don't know is that it may be a bad-mommy story as well.

Empire Angie Errigo

A prime example of what works in a book not working in a film.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

What, a white woman can’t take an innocent drive through the ghetto without arousing suspicion? What’s this world coming to?

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

An overblown urban crime drama that should be a lot better than it is.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

This tale of a white mother's kid gone missing in a black New Jersey neighborhood - and the tensions and news media attention that ensue - is pretty much pure jive.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Steer clear of Freedomland, the movie. Your time would be better spent reading Richard Price's much more compelling 1998 novel.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

With Roth at the helm of a script attributed to Price, there is minimal suspense, audience involvement or coherent social commentary.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Roth takes three powerhouse actors -- Julianne Moore as the mother, Samuel L. Jackson as the cop who interrogates her and Edie Falco as another woman who lost her son -- and reduces their talents to rubble and their characters to screeching cliches.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Freedomland is the worst kind of bad movie: one that thinks it's important.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

Freedomland manages a seemingly impossible feat: It's both turgid AND overwrought, eliciting the shriek that fades into a yawn without anyone ever noticing. It's a wholly dreary piece of work.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

An early candidate for worst film of the year is Freedomland, an inept, lethally dull drama.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The production can best be described by several f-words. It is frenetic, frazzled and febrile. It is also feeble -- almost touchingly so, if you think of what bottomless insecurity must have prompted so much bombast.

The average user rating for this movie is 4.7 (out of 10) based on 38 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Alan Nutter gave it an8:
I can't understand the negative reaction to this movie. It depicts how one event can have massively far reaching consequences and illustrates it well. Julianne Moore was superb in this movie as one critic said, "she doesn't just act she goes on the attack". Recommended.

Anthony P. gave it a9:
It is amazing to me that so many reviews have panned this movie. I saw it a year and a half ago, and I was stunned by the idea and the execution of this exquisitely complex situation where an individual's personal disaster sparks social mayhem, and how subtly the true complexity of it is revealed. I have just now seen it again and I am no less impressed, particularly by the performance of Julianne Moore. Her stupor that so bores or offends so many critics is a careful, exacting emotional portrayal of the desperate condition of one who is frozen with horror at what one has wrought, while at the same time sustaining a state of denial. Those critics doth protest too much. Because it is so truly rendered, it is painful to watch for sure, but there is portrayed here an exquisite conundrum for many people in real life trapped in such a hell hole. Ms. Moore's performance brilliantly captures this to such a degree as to no doubt evoke disgust with people who would hope that their own lives are safe from such abject circumstances. But this is art, not entertainment. It's the very serious human stuff that can, when we fail to grasp it, inflame us all. The conversations rendered here in which we see the truth emerge are entirely subtle and masterful. There is redemption in this film which I'd yet hope would engage anyone not already too cynical or frozen in denial.

Chad S. gave it a0:
I say this to you as a friend, BY ALL MEANS STRAY AWAY FROM THIS MOVIE!!! I want to literally take a shotgun and shoot julianne moore's character to bits. I was yelling at my tv, not something i would ever even consider myself doing, but i yelled at my tv. I would rather pull my hair out and eat it then watch this movie again. Freedomland is horrible, too long, and mostly annoying. Please, please, please i beg of you to not watch this movie. I cannot express my frustration enough. This movie should be viewed by nobody. It will only aggravate you. The story is no good, the plot twist is stupid, the characters will drive you mad, and its all wrapped with the weakest racial story ever. Do NOT watch this movie!

Adam G gave it a1:
The movie never seemed to go anywhere or accomplish anything; it simply had nothing to prove. Small amounts of activity/action combined with exhaustively long "talks" from Samuel and company along with a boring storyline make this movie intolerable.

Michael L. gave it a9:
Critics never cease to amaze me. If this film was an Eastern European import, I guarantee it would have received raves. Please note that Manohla Dargis of the New York times, who gave "Freedomland" a 10 (worst film of the year) awarded "Snakes on a Plane" a 70. Pete Travers of Rolling Stone panned "Freedomland", and gave "Pirates of the Carribean II" it's highest score. Enough said. If you're looking for dumbed-down non-stop action, explosions, cardboard characters, no social message, lots of blood and/or gore, "Freedomland" isn't for you. If you'd like to be challenged by a film that takes an obvious plot outcome yet still manages to create a stranglehold of dread, this is your film. Look, it's not a happy film--it's gloomy, it's fatalistic, and yes, it's too long...but it made me rethink my opinions of people like Susan Smith, and fully understand the tragedy of the uncared-for among us. The people and societal segments that slip through the cracks. This is powerful stuff, and you won't feel good when it's over. Moore is magnificent, and she allows her character's flaws to shine as if they were virtues. Jackson has never been better (except in "Snakes on a Plane", eh, Maohla?) as the detective who is trapped between his own shortcomings, his friends, his need for the truth, and his compassion. Edie Falco brings a quiet truth and dignity to the role of a long-suffering woman assisting in the case. What must be noted here: this is not a crime film. This is not "CSI"...it is a film about suffering, sadness, and the power of losing hope. It's devastating. It's not to be missed.

Ryan P. gave it a1:
It takes good actors like Julianne Moore and Samuel L. Jackson to have the guts to try and promote this garbage before it came out. I decided to pass on this on in the theaters thank God. Don't torture your DVD player by making it play this movie for you. It's just plain awful!

Tony B. gave it a7:
Overly complicated and sprawling at times, pretentiously photographed at others, this is still an effectively troubling film. Julianne Moore, Samuel L. Jackson and Edie Falco, supported by an excellent cast, are superb. Freedomland delves into more issues than any one film ought to perhaps but each is worth exploring and each is given no simple answers.

Freedomland Sony Pictures Releasing

Freedomland
Sony Pictures Releasing