43
Metascore
35 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenThe Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenThe film is, above all, a moving portrait of hurting souls, brought to life in compelling performances.
- 67Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanMoore doesn't just act. She goes on the attack, embracing the kind of lower-rung-of-the-middle-class role that actresses from Jodie Foster to Meryl Streep have long savored. Her performance is an achievement of sorts, yet, like the movie itself, it's also strenuous and joyless.
- 67Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerChristian Science MonitorPeter RainerIf Freedomland reminds you of Spike Lee's "Clockers," that's not by accident. Like that film, it's adapted by Richard Price from his novel and is set in the neighboring Northern New Jersey communities of Dempsy, predominantly poor and African-American, and the largely white blue-collar suburb of Gannon.
- 50VarietyBrian LowryVarietyBrian LowryDespite a few raw moments, pic feels like a Lifetime movie with a marquee cast.
- 50The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasOnly Edie Falco, appearing as a bereft mother leading a citizen's group that searches for missing children, suggests the great film that Freedomland might have been.
- 50PremierePremiereSurrounding Council and Moore in this cacophonous, bleak New Jersey are a set of cops, neighbors, and relatives played by actors that the unimaginative Roth yanked directly from various TV gritty crime shows; it's like he thought HBO was his personal casting agent.
- 50Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertIndividual scenes feel authentic, but the story tries to build bridges between loose ends.
- 40L.A. WeeklyElla TaylorL.A. WeeklyElla TaylorOrdinarily it's kind of hard to screw up a Richard Price story, but the writer is his own worst enemy here, with a screenplay so filled with bromides and object lessons from God, you can't tell what he's trying to say.
- 25Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversRoth takes three powerhouse actors -- Julianne Moore as the mother, Samuel L. Jackson as the cop who interrogates her and Edie Falco as another woman who lost her son -- and reduces their talents to rubble and their characters to screeching cliches.
- 20Dallas ObserverRobert WilonskyDallas ObserverRobert WilonskyFreedomland manages a seemingly impossible feat: It's both turgid AND overwrought, eliciting the shriek that fades into a yawn without anyone ever noticing. It's a wholly dreary piece of work.