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'Freedomland' mistakes intensity for drama

A blunt, awkward, wannabe Important Movie, "Freedomland" bludgeons its good ideas into a pulp of overacting, overdirection and black-and-white characterizations in a story meant to be shaded in gray.

Adapted by Richard Price from his novel (and eliminating one of the book's major characters), it's a drama pushing two hot-topic buttons: abducted children and racial tensions.

Sony Pictures 'Freedomland' C- The verdict: A would-be important movie that mishandles all its good ideas. Director: Joe Roth Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Julianne Moore, Edith Falco, Ron Eldard, William Forsythe Run time: 113 minutes Release date: Feb. 17, 2006 Rating: R for language and some violent content. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'Freedomland'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Single mom Brenda Martin (Julianne Moore) wanders one night into an emergency room in fictional Dempsy, N.J., looking bleached and hollowed-out, her hands ripped and bloody.

She cut them, she says, when flung to the glass-littered pavement by a black carjacker — who drove off unaware that her 4-year-old son, Cody, was asleep in the back seat.

It's weird how long it takes Brenda takes to share this last crucial detail. Even weirder is the reaction of Lorenzo Council (Samuel L. Jackson), the detective interviewing her. He screams at her, demanding more info on the boy as he calls in an all-points bulletin. Then he has an asthma attack in a scene shot with a dizzying, hand-held camera.

It's just the first time in the film when director Joe Roth mistakes over-the-top intensity and distracting camera choices for serious drama.

Following Brenda's claim, police leapfrog out of their legal jurisdictions, putting a lockdown on Armstrong Houses, a black housing project near the site of the carjacking. Trapped by this feverish search for one missing white child, angry Armstrong residents point out that the previous murders of three children in their community stirred zero police interest.

The question is, what really happened? Was there a carjacker? Or, as national statistics suggest, is Brenda implicated in her son's disappearance?

Lorenzo digs for the truth, recruiting help from Karen Collucci (Edie Falco), leader of a group that specializes in searching for missing children. In one of the movie's best moments (beautifully acted by Falco), Karen talks to Brenda about another missing child, using the story as a psychological key to unlock any secrets the grieving mother hasn't shared.

But for every strong, clean scene like this, there are other head-scratching ones — including Lorenzo's initial steps in the investigation. Why does he take Brenda to Armstrong after her interrogation, rather than to a police sketch artist? Why doesn't anyone ask who Cody's father is? Or if she's involved with another man? "Freedomland" throws up multiple questions as you watch.

Roth goes in for clumsy symbolism, like having a formerly friendly Armstrong mother lash into Brenda while they're in front of a mural sporting the slogan, "Together We Stand." When a riot explodes between Armstrong residents and police, Roth mutes the noise of fighting and fills the soundtrack with a celestial (and clichéd) chorus.

One of the film's more interesting questions — what is Lorenzo's identity in this no-man's land between Armstrong residents and the largely white police force — is lost in a movie that turns into an exercise in delay and frustration.

In the supporting cast, Aunjanue Ellis offers grace notes as a levelheaded Armstrong resident, struggling with a hothead boyfriend (Anthony Mackie, also fine). But Ron Eldard can't do anything to modulate the two-dimensional role of Brenda's racist policeman brother.

And the usually excellent Moore can't make sense of Brenda. Despite a strong monologue late in the movie, the actress goes over the top, making Brenda seem alternately hysterical and mentally impaired.

You can't blame director Roth ("Christmas With the Kranks," "Revenge of the Nerds II") for trying to claw his way out of hackdom. This just isn't how to do it.

Speaking of hackdom, "Freedomland" may be badly flawed, but Jackson is back in form, delivering strong dramatic work after paycheck roles in "The Man," the two "XXX" movies and, yes, all three "Star Wars" prequels. Welcome back, Sam. Well, at least until the next schlocker, "Snakes on a Plane," comes out this summer ...