Freedomland

What could have been a welcome throwback to the stylings of the 90s Grisham adaptations is somewhat defeated by a too plodding and self-serious tone – I suspect Roth saw this as his break into more respectable, “prestige” film-making, but can’t quite bring the requisite life to Price’s unfocused script, which engages uncomfortably with its racial tensions without ever saying anything particularly insightful or profound. Kept watchable by its performances – Moore can play emotionally brittle and manipulative with the best of them, Jackson is an unerring anchor, though its surprisingly Falco who swoops in and steals it from the rest of the cast – in fact the film may have been immeasurably better had she been allowed to take centre stage, especially as the film’s heart seems to be with the trauma of losing a child.