Apart from mishandling the rhythm of the movie as a whole, the director does not fare any better with individual scenes. There are long monologues which do little other than bore. There is the aforementioned forced dramatic tension. Many scenes are just not played right, such as when Lorenzo first discovers that Brenda's child was in the car when it was stolen. It's a scene where a veteran detective, incredibly enough, starts to panic, fumbles with his pen and pad of paper, sucks on an inhaler to calm himself down, and even yells at Brenda when his questions are not understood. Worst of all, a camera in desperate need of a tripod is flitting about the room the whole time in a manic attempt to accentuate the flurried panic of the situation. It's supposed to get your pulse racing, but it only manages to raise eyebrows.

Still, I would not say that Freedomland, on the balance, is a terribly bad movie. There was just enough that was good about it to cancel out most of the bad and keep it on the border of respectability. The acting, despite a lack of ideas from the director, is pretty good, and the movie is attractive to look at. The director of photography and the set designers, along with the actors, did their jobs. It was the director, and most likely the editor, who let them down.

The Upside:
Good acting and a smart look to it. Plus, the idea for the movie holds promise.
The Downside:
Directing that is just short of lousy and an overall failure to establish and maintain any kind of momentum, let alone realize a satisfying climax. Many scenes simply don't work and the two principal aspects of the film mean nothing to each other, so that it either becomes a movie of racial tension with a superfluous crime caper attached, or a crime caper with a distracting bit about police powers in an urban neighborhood.

Making the Grade:
Overall: C-

Matthew Alexander is a Staff Writer for Film School Rejects