Based on a novel by Richard Price, "Freedomland" has both more and less story than it knows what to do with. On one hand, it hopes to animate the racially charged culture clash that a single incident ignites between a middle-class community and the mostly black housing project bordering it. Pitched somewhere between the world-in-a-day allegory of "Do the Right Thing" and the grandiose sweep of "Bonfire of the Vanities," this is the kind of conflict a novel can do justice to; for a movie that needs to satisfy suspense-tale conventions, though, it's a lot to ask. Read the full review
Late one night in a working class New Jersey suburb, a bloodied woman staggers mute and dazed into the emergency room. She claims to have been kidnapped, and long-simmering racial tensions ignite during the search for her missing child.
Director: Joe Roth
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Julianne Moore, Edith Falco, Ron Eldard, William Forsythe
Run time: 113 minutes
Release date: Feb. 17, 2006
Rating: R for language and some violent content.
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: C-
"You can't blame director Joe Roth (Christmas With the Kranks, Revenge of the Nerds II) for trying to claw his way out of hackdom. This just isn't how to do it."
Austin American-Statesman: 2 of 5 stars
"Richard Price has adapted his own novel for the screen, and it shows: He indulges in some bits of dialogue that might have amplified the book's themes but get in the way of the movie's momentum."
The Palm Beach Post: B+
"...refuses to settle for tidy answers or a reassuring resolution."
