Freedomland (film)
Encyclopedia
Freedomland is a 2006 American crime drama-mystery film
starring Samuel L. Jackson
and Julianne Moore
. Richard Price
adapted his own novel
, which touches on themes of covert racism
. Joe Roth
directed the film.
) wandering through the projects
at night. She eventually comes to a hospital, goes into the emergency room and reveals her hands, which are cut and covered in blood.
The film cuts to Lorenzo (Samuel L. Jackson
), a policeman, and his partner, who are trying to pick up a criminal on a warrant from the next town. He gets a call about seeing Brenda, is instructed to take a report on her stolen car, and heads for the hospital.
Brenda is in shock, but after a few minutes, she reveals to Lorenzo that her four year-old son, Cody, was in the back seat of her car when it was stolen. Lorenzo reacts to this with an asthma
attack, and one of the hospital's doctors gives him a shot of adrenaline. It is also revealed that Brenda's brother is a policeman in the next, predominantly white, town.
The police begin to search for Brenda's son. Her brother overreacts and calls every police car
to seal up the projects and look for clues. Tensions grow as the local media cover the story extensively. Lorenzo takes Brenda home, but he suspects that there’s something she’s not telling him. After dropping her off at her place, he starts to drive home and realizes he’s being followed. He pulls over and discovers it’s a volunteer group that helps look for missing children. He declines their help and goes home.
The next day, Lorenzo visits his incarcerated son, then checks up on Brenda, who has helped a sketch artist draw a rendering of the man who took her car.
There’s still no sign of Cody, and tensions are rising around the projects. Lorenzo again asks Brenda what really happened to Cody and she pleads with him to believe her, that Cody is her life and she would never hurt him. She goes by the daycare center where she works and the children try to cheer her up. As she’s leaving, a mother tells Brenda to stay away from her child.
The white town’s cops show up at the projects and arrest a man. They beat him, drag him back to the precinct and hold up the drawing of the wanted man, whom he resembles. They start to question him when Lorenzo and Brenda’s brother show up. Brenda's brother goes into a rage and beats the man, and other officers have to drag them apart. Lorenzo leaves in horror and runs into his partner outside. Realizing that the case will be turned over to federal investigators, Lorenzo asks his partner to stall them for one more day.
Lorenzo calls in the volunteer group and suggests they search Freedomland. It’s the site of an old foundlings
’ home - abandoned for years - and the only place in the area where a small child could wander or hide for some time. They also feel that taking Brenda there will get the truth out of her via the psychological impact of the place.
The searchers gather and Lorenzo learns that their leader lost her son about ten years before. As they search, she talks to Brenda. The leader tells Brenda how she wishes she knew where her son was, how she knows who did it, but can’t prove it. She runs through what she would like to say to the man to get him to tell her if her son was dead and where his body was placed. Gradually, she shifts the context of the sentence to asking Brenda if her son was dead. Brenda begins to cry and the search leader motions to Lorenzo, knowing that she killed Cody. Brenda reveals that Freedomland is the wrong place to look. She leads them to another park, in which they find a shallow grave covered with heavy rocks, where Cody is buried. Lorenzo calls in the forensic team, ordering an exhumation. He also realizes Brenda couldn't have moved such heavy rocks.
Lorenzo takes her back to the police department and they talk. Brenda then confesses she was having an affair with Billy, a man from the projects. She would feed Cody cough syrup, to get him to sleep, so she could have sex with Billy without interruption. On the night Billy ended the relationship, Cody wouldn't fall asleep and Brenda and Billy fought. Brenda walked out to see him, despite her son's warnings that she would be sorry. When she returned, she found Cody dead under the table. He'd overdosed on the cough syrup. When Brenda realized what happened, she lost it, not knowing what to do. She drove out to the woods and dug his grave with her bare hands. Then she called her ex-lover and asked him to help. He carried Cody out there, buried him, and put the rocks over the grave - both as a tribute and to keep animals away. Lorenzo signs an arrest warrant and both Brenda and Billy are taken away.
That night, the police make their presence known in the projects due to the tensions over the arrest of another black man. Tensions are even higher, and Lorenzo implores both sides to calm down and step back before things go too far. However, several tenants do not. Among them is a young man Lorenzo has been trying to keep out of trouble, who throws the first punch at a police officer saying "Y'all have a good night". The situation erupts into a full-scale riot. Fires are set, people beaten, cops jumped and arrests made everywhere. Lorenzo attempts to break up fights but ends up getting struck by a billy club when pulling a tenant off of a fellow cop.
The next day, Brenda is charged with criminal negligence
in court and sits in prison awaiting trial. Lorenzo visits Brenda in prison and tells her to channel her grief into something positive - helping other prisoners. Brenda says she loves Lorenzo for his heart, and thanks him. He promises he'll visit her. Then he visits his son and breaks down into tears. Later on, Lorenzo and his partner go to a memorial for Kent, the search mother's dead son, and Cody. Lorenzo reads a eulogy
about life, and thanks his partner for bringing him there, as they walk away.
Mystery film
Mystery film is a sub-genre of the more general category of crime film and at times the thriller genre. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of a crime by means of clues, investigation, and clever deduction.The...
starring Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor,...
and Julianne Moore
Julianne Moore
Julianne Moore is an American actress and a children's book author. Throughout her career, she has been nominated for four Oscars, six Golden Globes, three BAFTAs and nine Screen Actors Guild Awards....
. Richard Price
Richard Price (writer)
Richard Price is an American novelist and screenwriter, known for the books The Wanderers and Clockers.-Early life:...
adapted his own novel
Freedomland (novel)
-Plot introduction:A woman staggers into a local hospital, too dazed to speak. As the doctors and police try to puzzle out her injuries, her story comes out. She was thrown to the ground and her car was stolen...
, which touches on themes of covert racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
. Joe Roth
Joe Roth
Joe Roth is an American film executive, producer and film director. He co-founded Morgan Creek Productions in 1987 and was chairman of 20th Century Fox , Caravan Pictures , and Walt Disney Studios before founding Revolution Studios in 2000.-Life and career:Roth was born in New York, New York,...
directed the film.
Plot
The film opens with Brenda (Julianne MooreJulianne Moore
Julianne Moore is an American actress and a children's book author. Throughout her career, she has been nominated for four Oscars, six Golden Globes, three BAFTAs and nine Screen Actors Guild Awards....
) wandering through the projects
Public housing
Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Social housing is an umbrella term referring to rental housing which may be owned and managed by the state, by non-profit organizations, or by a combination of the...
at night. She eventually comes to a hospital, goes into the emergency room and reveals her hands, which are cut and covered in blood.
The film cuts to Lorenzo (Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor,...
), a policeman, and his partner, who are trying to pick up a criminal on a warrant from the next town. He gets a call about seeing Brenda, is instructed to take a report on her stolen car, and heads for the hospital.
Brenda is in shock, but after a few minutes, she reveals to Lorenzo that her four year-old son, Cody, was in the back seat of her car when it was stolen. Lorenzo reacts to this with an asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
attack, and one of the hospital's doctors gives him a shot of adrenaline. It is also revealed that Brenda's brother is a policeman in the next, predominantly white, town.
The police begin to search for Brenda's son. Her brother overreacts and calls every police car
Police car
A police car is a ground vehicle used by police, to assist with their duties in patrolling and responding to incidents. Typical uses of a police car include transportation for officers to reach the scene of an incident quickly, to transport criminal suspects, or to patrol an area, while providing a...
to seal up the projects and look for clues. Tensions grow as the local media cover the story extensively. Lorenzo takes Brenda home, but he suspects that there’s something she’s not telling him. After dropping her off at her place, he starts to drive home and realizes he’s being followed. He pulls over and discovers it’s a volunteer group that helps look for missing children. He declines their help and goes home.
The next day, Lorenzo visits his incarcerated son, then checks up on Brenda, who has helped a sketch artist draw a rendering of the man who took her car.
There’s still no sign of Cody, and tensions are rising around the projects. Lorenzo again asks Brenda what really happened to Cody and she pleads with him to believe her, that Cody is her life and she would never hurt him. She goes by the daycare center where she works and the children try to cheer her up. As she’s leaving, a mother tells Brenda to stay away from her child.
The white town’s cops show up at the projects and arrest a man. They beat him, drag him back to the precinct and hold up the drawing of the wanted man, whom he resembles. They start to question him when Lorenzo and Brenda’s brother show up. Brenda's brother goes into a rage and beats the man, and other officers have to drag them apart. Lorenzo leaves in horror and runs into his partner outside. Realizing that the case will be turned over to federal investigators, Lorenzo asks his partner to stall them for one more day.
Lorenzo calls in the volunteer group and suggests they search Freedomland. It’s the site of an old foundlings
Child abandonment
Child abandonment is the practice of relinquishing interests and claims over one's offspring with the intent of never again resuming or reasserting them. Causes include many social and cultural factors as well as mental illness. An abandoned child is called a foundling .-Causes:Poverty is often a...
’ home - abandoned for years - and the only place in the area where a small child could wander or hide for some time. They also feel that taking Brenda there will get the truth out of her via the psychological impact of the place.
The searchers gather and Lorenzo learns that their leader lost her son about ten years before. As they search, she talks to Brenda. The leader tells Brenda how she wishes she knew where her son was, how she knows who did it, but can’t prove it. She runs through what she would like to say to the man to get him to tell her if her son was dead and where his body was placed. Gradually, she shifts the context of the sentence to asking Brenda if her son was dead. Brenda begins to cry and the search leader motions to Lorenzo, knowing that she killed Cody. Brenda reveals that Freedomland is the wrong place to look. She leads them to another park, in which they find a shallow grave covered with heavy rocks, where Cody is buried. Lorenzo calls in the forensic team, ordering an exhumation. He also realizes Brenda couldn't have moved such heavy rocks.
Lorenzo takes her back to the police department and they talk. Brenda then confesses she was having an affair with Billy, a man from the projects. She would feed Cody cough syrup, to get him to sleep, so she could have sex with Billy without interruption. On the night Billy ended the relationship, Cody wouldn't fall asleep and Brenda and Billy fought. Brenda walked out to see him, despite her son's warnings that she would be sorry. When she returned, she found Cody dead under the table. He'd overdosed on the cough syrup. When Brenda realized what happened, she lost it, not knowing what to do. She drove out to the woods and dug his grave with her bare hands. Then she called her ex-lover and asked him to help. He carried Cody out there, buried him, and put the rocks over the grave - both as a tribute and to keep animals away. Lorenzo signs an arrest warrant and both Brenda and Billy are taken away.
That night, the police make their presence known in the projects due to the tensions over the arrest of another black man. Tensions are even higher, and Lorenzo implores both sides to calm down and step back before things go too far. However, several tenants do not. Among them is a young man Lorenzo has been trying to keep out of trouble, who throws the first punch at a police officer saying "Y'all have a good night". The situation erupts into a full-scale riot. Fires are set, people beaten, cops jumped and arrests made everywhere. Lorenzo attempts to break up fights but ends up getting struck by a billy club when pulling a tenant off of a fellow cop.
The next day, Brenda is charged with criminal negligence
Criminal negligence
In the criminal law, criminal negligence is one of the three general classes of mens rea element required to constitute a conventional as opposed to strict liability offense. It is defined as an act that is:-Concept:...
in court and sits in prison awaiting trial. Lorenzo visits Brenda in prison and tells her to channel her grief into something positive - helping other prisoners. Brenda says she loves Lorenzo for his heart, and thanks him. He promises he'll visit her. Then he visits his son and breaks down into tears. Later on, Lorenzo and his partner go to a memorial for Kent, the search mother's dead son, and Cody. Lorenzo reads a eulogy
Eulogy
A eulogy is a speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especially one recently deceased or retired. Eulogies may be given as part of funeral services. However, some denominations either discourage or do not permit eulogies at services to maintain respect for traditions...
about life, and thanks his partner for bringing him there, as they walk away.
Cast
- Samuel L. JacksonSamuel L. JacksonSamuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor,...
as Officer Lorenzo Council - Julianne MooreJulianne MooreJulianne Moore is an American actress and a children's book author. Throughout her career, she has been nominated for four Oscars, six Golden Globes, three BAFTAs and nine Screen Actors Guild Awards....
as Brenda Martin - Edie FalcoEdie FalcoEdith "Edie" Falco is an American television, film and stage actress, known for her roles in Oz as Diane Wittlesey, as Carmela Soprano on the HBO series The Sopranos, and as the titular character on the Showtime series Nurse Jackie...
as Karen Collucci - Ron EldardRon EldardRonald Jason "Ron" Eldard is an American actor.-Early life:Eldard, the second youngest of seven children , was born on Long Island, New York. Eldard's mother died in a car accident when he was a child, and Eldard and his siblings were sent to live with various family members...
as Danny Martin - William ForsytheWilliam Forsythe (actor)William Forsythe is an American actor, known for playing "tough guy" roles. He is also a writer, and has several short stories that are set to be published.-Early life:...
as Boyle - Aunjanue EllisAunjanue EllisAunjanue L. Ellis is an American actress known for her roles in Ray, in Undercover Brother, and on The Mentalist....
as Felicia - Anthony MackieAnthony MackieAnthony Mackie is an American actor. He has been featured in feature films, television series and Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, including Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Drowning Crow, McReele, A Soldier's Play, and Talk, by Carl Hancock Rux, for which he won an Obie Award in 2002.In 2002 he featured...
as Billy Williams - Marlon Sherman as Cody