Freedomland (2006)

A black police detective must solve a strange case of a kidnapped boy and deal with a big racial protest.

Director:

Joe Roth

Writers:

Richard Price (screenplay), Richard Price (novel)

Stars:

Julianne Moore, Samuel L. Jackson, Edie Falco

2 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Samuel L. Jackson	...	Lorenzo Council
Julianne Moore	...	Brenda Martin
Edie Falco	...	Karen Collucci
Ron Eldard	...	Danny Martin
William Forsythe	...	Boyle
Aunjanue Ellis	...	Felicia
Anthony Mackie	...	Billy Williams
LaTanya Richardson Jackson	...	Marie
Clarke Peters	...	Reverend Longway
Peter Friedman	...	Lt. Gold
Domenick Lombardozzi	...	Leo Sullivan
Aasif Mandvi	...	Dr. Anil Chatterjee
Philip Bosco	...	Priest
Fly Williams III	...	Rafik
Portia	...	Doreen / Rafik's Sister

Storyline

Late one evening, Brenda Martin, a thirty-seven year old Caucasian woman from the proverbial wrong side of the tracks, enters Dempsy Medical Center in Dempsy, New Jersey with minor injuries, but she is also emotionally distraught. One of the people to who she tells her story is Dempsy Police Detective Lorenzo Council, a black man. That story is that she was just carjacked by another unknown black man when she took a shortcut that she had never traveled between the Armstrong housing projects, where she works at the Rainbow Club, a children's center, and her home in Gannon, New Jersey. Her emotional distress is because her four year old son, Cody, was asleep in the back seat of the car and is thus now in the hands of the carjacker. Brenda's brother, Danny Martin, a police detective in Gannon, cannot help but get directly involved in the investigation despite he operating outside his jurisdiction. His actions do not sit well with Council, who he insinuates is not only not doing his job, ...

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Plot Keywords:

police | mother | kidnapping | hospital | missing child | 

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Taglines:

The Truth Is Hiding Where No One Dares To Look.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some violent content

Details

Official Sites:

Sony Pictures [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Italian

Release Date:

17 February 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Das Gesicht der Wahrheit

Filming Locations:

Red Fox Diner Restaurant: 138 Route 9A, Elmsford, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$37,665,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,707,111, 19 February 2006, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$12,512,886, 12 March 2006

Company Credits

Production Co:

Revolution Studios, Scott Rudin Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min 112 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Michael Winterbottom was the original Director, and did extensive work before leaving this project.

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Goofs

The scenes at the Freedomland facility appear to be in late fall/winter - trees are bare, subjects are wearing heavy clothing. When Lorenzo interviews Brenda, he states on the tape recorder the date of the interview is May.

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Quotes

Lorenzo Council: I tell you, 22 years of policing in this city things I see day in, day out makes it very, very hard to have faith in humanity.

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Connections

Features Wheel of Fortune (1983)

User Reviews

Lost like the child.

Julianne Moore is looking for a child again, but this time it's real time, hardscrabble New Jersey projects rather than the mind of a perplexing mom (Forgotten, 2004). Moore plays Brenda Martin, who claims to have lost her son to a carjacker who absconded with her son sleeping in the back seat? Veteran detective Lorenzo Council is indeed the counseling type whose patience with the ranting Martin wears thin as he suspects lies among her details of the abduction.

Director Joe Roth seems to be more interested in the racial combustion inherent in the situation. In fact, he goes to lengths to show white police confronting black protesters, who are rightfully furious at the support for the disappearance of one white child when many more black missing children barely cause a ripple. Roth doesn't let it all go too deeply into contemporary racial politics while by comparison he gives ample time for Council to ruminate on his responsibility for his son's incarceration for armed robbery. Even the conflict between Martin's cop brother's desire for revenge and Council's attempts to keep his blue-collar burb of Gannon out of the project is underdeveloped, apparently left among the editing ruins.

A nice touch is the presence of a volunteer group looking for missing children, headed by Edie Falco's Karen Collucci, who has a missing child for 10 years. The group offers a sane oasis amid the fire of the social tensions, and Collucci offers advice and insight far ahead of any smart detective's. Falco upstages Jackson with a gritty sincerity and cool that could win her mayor of Manhattan if she so wished.

Freedomland turns on social tension but never gives it a chance to flourish. The issues are lost like the child among too much Martin moaning