Racial tension is sometimes a cop-out for filmmakers, a way of increasing dramatic tension while diverting the audience's attention away from poor casting. But when you do get talent on screen, well, then you need do something with the story, now don't you? In Freedomland, abundant with talent, racial tension is just one aspect of this multi-layered, twisting drama.
At the beginning of the film, Brenda Martin's (Julianne Moore) car is hijacked with her four-year-old son asleep in the backseat. Understandably distraught, she accuses a black man who lives in the Armstrong Projects of Dempsey, New Jersey. Samuel L. Jackson plays Lorenzo Council, the detective who must handle the difficulties that arise when the neighboring police force (Brenda's brother is a cop in the next town over) tries to take control of the Armstrong Projects, Council's de facto territory.
Samuel L. Jackson is at his simmering best as he balances racial issues while trying to deduce whether Brenda is telling the truth about her son. Moore, whose hair is dyed a dull blond, looks as washed out and washed up as her character must be feeling. She claws and cries her way through the movie just enough to make you feel for her. Yet simultaneously, you feel as though you can't trust her. Finally, Edie Falco, who plays the leader of a missing children's search party, and who clearly relishes in playing a different kind of Jersey mom, provides a well-crafted contrast to Moore's character. As Freedomland plays out, the racial issues wind in with issues of loss, and the cast excels in telling the story.
