Reel Fanatic

Anticipating “Freedomland”

"Freedomland," opening in Macon and everywhere else this Friday, has all the ingredients of a great potboiler.

With stars Julianne Moore and Samuel L. Jackson, with a side helping of Edie Falco, how can you go wrong?

And yet, I'm nervous. Why? The trailer leaves me unsettled.

The story itself is basic enough: A white woman gets carjacked by what she claims is a black assailant. What the thief failed to realize is that her young child was in the backseat.
This would all seem pretty pedestrian if Richard Price weren't involved. He wrote both the screenplay for this one and the novel it is based upon.

Price is a great writer, in my opinion, and an even more astute observer of race relations in America. His first novel, "The Wanderers," is among my favorites, and he also wrote the novel and screenplay Clockers, made into a smokin' Spike Lee joint.

So why the worry? The trailer has ominous signs ... after setting up all the ingredients for a combustible mix, fear and hatred tearing up a neighborhood as the result of such a horrendous crime, it drifts off in so many different directions that you could end up anywhere, or worse, nowhere at all.

But don't take my word for it. See the trailer yourself here, and give the movie a shot.