by MATTHEW HAYS

It’s a sad but true fact of the relationship between actresses and studio films. After about the age of 40, women who work in studio films have about three choices: They can become invisible and disappear, or they can put their careers on hiatus until they’re pushing 60 and ripe to play grandma roles, or, lastly, they can play psychotics. It doesn’t leave Hollywood’s post-40 set of actresses—no matter how talented—a lot of range.

Thus, Julianne Moore is handed her lead role in Freedomland, in which she is a former addict who arrives in the ER one night, hands severely cut and bloodied, with a harrowing tale of a carjacking. Worse still, when police investigator Samuel L. Jackson manages to calm down the hysterical Moore, she reveals that her four-year-old son had been asleep in the back seat of the car. This is no mere carjacking—it’s now become a kidnapping.

Trouble is, Moore was held up in the midst of an inner-city park, in a neighbourhood overwhelmingly African-American. And when she describes her assailant as black, well, you’ve got a torn-from-the-headlines police drama on your hands.

Despite this set-up and despite the considerable dual talents of Jackson and Moore, there is something strangely prosaic about Freedomland. Certainly, the ongoing racial tensions that exist in America are entirely worthy of mining in a dramatic context, but this film feels far less like a fresh examination than a revisiting of various clichés. As good as Jackson is, his place in the film as noble, suffering black cop is one we’ve seen too many times before.

As for Freedomland’s a-ha moment, one we critics are not supposed to disclose? You don’t need me—you’ll see it coming a mile away. Freedomland tries to be a truly affecting drama, and has its moments, but ultimately fails. I suspect it will mainly be noted for Moore’s performance, a turn that is at times so strangely overdone it is unclear whether or not this incredible actress was intentionally parodying her role. A film best left to a rental on a slow night.

Freedomland opens Friday, Feb. 17

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