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FREEHELD – The Review – We Are Movie Geeks

Review

FREEHELD – The Review

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It’s been said time and again that major changes in the law and society can actually begin with one person,… or two. You know how just a pebble can gather momentum and bring about an avalanche that can alter the landscape. This new feature film docudrama tells such a story. Its subject is one still discussed, especially with the presidential campaigns starting so very early. The story begins just ten years ago, not that long before the sweeping changes concerning marriage which lead to equality throughout these united states. But at this time there were only “civil unions” which we often denied same-sex couples the rights that straight couples took for granted. Yes, this film is based on a true story, one that has been brought to the screen before, as a documentary short subject back in 2007. And it won an Oscar, too! The new dramatic adaptation shares its title with that earlier film also: FREEHELD.

The story begins with the look at the dangerous profession of Ocean County New Jersey police officer Laurel Hester (Julianne Moore), as she helps take down a drug-selling gang. She has the respect of all at the precinct, especially her macho, womanizing police partner Dane Wells (Michael Shannon). But Laurel keeps her personal life a secret from them: she is a lesbian. This prompts her to socialize many miles away from her home and work. At a volleyball game she meets the several years younger Stacie Andree (Ellen Page), an auto mechanic. After an awkward first date, almost ended when a closeted co-worker spots them, a tentative romance begins, after Stacie accepts Laurel’s need for discretion. Soon they decide to start a home, and Laurel purchases a house the two will share. When he arrives unannounced with a housewarming present, Dane meets Stacie and learns, and accepts the truth, about his partner. All is idyllic until a routine check-up on a persistent bruise shatters their world. Laurel has cancer that’s rapidly spreading through her body. As she retires from the force, Laurel sets about denoting Stacie as the recipient of her policemen’s pension, insuring that she will be able to live in the house they share. But county law doesn’t recognize civil unions and refuses the request. After being ignored at the meetings of the county’s board of “chosen freeholders” (hence the title), a local newspaper reporter contacts gay rights activist Steven Goldstein (Steve Carell), who makes the case of Laurel and Stacie the celebrated cause of Garden State Equality with the hope that justice is served before the decorated policewoman passes away.

The always impressive, and most recent long-overdue Best Actress Oscar winner, Ms. Moore bring every facet of the complex Laurel to dazzling life, making the spokeswomen for sexual equality into a warm, endearing human being. With her feathered “Farrah” blonde hairstyle, she could’ve made this “Joizee” lady cop into a caricature, but we see Laurel’s longing, yearning, tempered by fear and trepidation. We can imagine how tough it must have been to get the law enforcement “boys club” to accept her which spurs her concern over what would happen if her life was exposed. Moore shows her joy and finally finding the love of her life, which makes her descent into disease even more heart-wrenching. Page ‘s Stacie doesn’t have such an extreme conflict, but can’t quite comprehend the need for such secrecy. This tough, garage whiz is quite a change from her more eloquent, cerebral staple of role (she’s no “grease monkey” spin on JUNO) and page gives us a peek on her intense determination coupled with Stacie love and concern for Laurel. It’s only near the end of their public battle that Stacie finally dwells on her fading love. Shannon follows up his superb villainous supporting turn in 99 HOLMES with take on a brusque, tough guy whose surly exterior shields a soft, supportive soul. Dane is a faithful partner, no matter the curveballs thrown his way. When Laurel comes out to him, he’s not angry over her orientation, but rather that she felt she couldn’t share it with him. During the legal battles, he’s truly in her corner, though not as vocal or voracious as Carell playing the loud and proud Goldstein. Although he seems too flamboyant at times (as if he just popped in straight from an episode of TV’s “Will & Grace”), Carrell brings a needed comic energy to the politics and pain of the film’s last act. Also of note is TV vet Josh Charles as the “freeholder” who just may be swayed, and who fights to change the mind and hearts of his fellow members.

The film’s direction by Peter Sollett (NICK AND NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST) is fairly standard and straightforward, never resorting to flashy tricks or narrative techniques that will lose the story’s focus on Laurel and Stacie. Ron (PHILADELPHIA) Nyswaner’s screenplay wisely delves into the love story with a sweet, sensitive touch, until the eventual legal declaration and occasional “speech-ifyin”. The score from Hans Zimmer never hammers at the heart-strings. Ultimately the film’s structure and scope never seems breaks the bounds of a cable TV effort, it’s a “super-special Lifetime movie event. This feels especially true when the story becomes a medical “tear-jerker”. Kudos, however, for showing Laurel’s chain-smoking, so that it doesn’t seem that the lung cancer comes outta’ nowhere. As she begins her long fade-out, Laurel almost becomes a martyr figure, suffering stemming from the injustices from close-minded society. It’s then that the fil almost wallows in her pain as she must trudge to those all-too familiar council chambers once again. Her story is an important one, but despite the terrific cast FREEHELD remains shackled by its dramatic deficiencies, when it should take flight.

3 Out of 5

FREEHELD opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Tivoli Theatre

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Jim Batts was a contestant on the movie edition of TV's "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" in 2009 and has been a member of the St. Louis Film Critics organization since 2013.