Freedomland with Samuel L. Jackson

Freedomland is a dark, gritty police drama set in the projects in New Jersey. Samuel L. Jackson, the former bad ass from "Shaft" and "Star Wars", plays Lorenzo Council; a streetwise cop with a pulse on the projects. He and his partner keep the peace there by acting as the law as well as an advocate of the people.

Lorenzo is called to the local hospital to take the statement of local carjacking victim Brenda Martin (Julianne Moore), who was attacked on the wrong side of the tracks. In tears, she reports the incident and then reluctantly releases that her four year old son was asleep in the back seat. Lorenzo franticly calls this in and the hunt begins.

Brenda's brother, a cop from the adjoining white neighborhood, gets wind of the abduction of his nephew. He rallies the fellow officers and puts a strangle hold on the projects in order to find the culprit and his nephew.

In the projects the tension is mounting as they are losing their personal freedom and liberty to the police working on the word of an outsider. The people are looking to Lorenzo to take their side and make this problem disappear.

Not all is as it seems. Lorenzo suspects that Brenda is not giving him all of the information he needs to find her son. It is his plan to push her over the edge to get what he needs before the situation in the projects explodes into a full riot.

Working beyond the scope of her acting ability, Julianne Moore attempts to fill in the emotional instability of Brenda Martin with huffing and self torture as she goes through the throws of emotional loss. Without her son, her life has lost it's meaning… but through the forced tears, Julianne fails to portray the desperation and regret of this unfit parent who has no identity outside of motherhood.

Samuel Jackson's role of Lorenzo seems cold and detached, as it should be for a cop. He has a crime to solve and cannot allow the emotions of others to cloud his judgment. He immediately sees a problem when the victim does not panic upon introduction considering the description of her attacker. He shows a bit of compassion at the end when he wraps up the story into his own life.

A word about the plot; there is a story, but you have to be patient to see it. The story gets muddled with subplots around the projects, the child hunters and a nearby abandoned facility called Freedomland. The real meat of the story is the interaction between Brenda and Lorenzo although the interaction is limited. It's not a bad story; it is just slow and requires you to keep focus to see how the world is changing around the main characters.

This movie does not need to be seen on the big screen. This drama takes place more in conversation than effects so the theatre experience is wasted. The only benefit you have is that you are a captive audience and are forced to endure through the story.

Wait for the DVD if you must see this film, at least you can pause it and refocus.