Freedomland

Freedomland gets off to a promising start. Confused, bleeding mother Brenda (Moore) staggers into hospital claiming she's been carjacked, while friend-of-the-people cop Lorenzo Council (Jackson) rushes to her side. At first his main concern is that the assailant is from the projects he knows well, but when she reveals that her young son was in the back of the stolen car, his mood - and that of the film - changes.

The initial rush into action is exciting: as cops frantically pool resources, Brenda is caught up in a whirlwind of publicity, racial controversy and outrage from projects people, who dispute her claim. Quite why anyone disputes her claim isn't absolutely clear: is it her drug addicted past, or her delay in reporting the crime? Either way, suspicion grows, and as it does, so the film begins to fall apart.

Initially a taught thriller, Freedomland becomes watered down into a soggy soup of vague social commentary with a hint of character drama. The reveal happens too early, rendering the film directionless thereafter, although ironically Moore's performance is at its best when the plot is at its worst, her complex, bewildered outpourings temporarily distracting us from the narrative dead end (though you'd expect Moore to be a past master at this sort of thing after already having starrred in one distraught mum-lost child mystery film, 2004's The Forgotten). There's also chemistry between Moore and Jackson.

Furthermore, there's a potentially interesting character in Karen Collucci (Falco), who leads a slightly sinister group of women who make it their business to track down missing children. This is yet down, however, by the fact that Collucci's contribution to the plot as a whole is unclear - like many of the characters in a film that's almost as confused as its leading lady.