Review: ‘Freeheld’ Rides the Shattering Line of Offensive
Samuel Kaufman ’19 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
Beginning with the casting, it is incredibly transparent in its marketable choices. The three leads are blatantly typecast in roles almost identical to ones they have played before. Julianne Moore seems to be playing a dying woman because she just won an Oscar for playing one in Still Alice. Ellen Page seems to be a lesbian because she recently came out in her personal life. Michael Shannon is playing a grizzled cop because whoever runs Hollywood decided a few years back that all grizzled cops where to be played by Michael Shannon. The actors do a passable enough job if one ignores the curious lack of chemistry between anyone. This theme of banality is continued through every aspect of the movie. Everything including the writing, the cinematography, and even the music are bland and predictable. Pivotal story beats are played out with little emotional depth or meaning, and their reproductions are forgotten almost instantly. There are dozens of times throughout the movie that a character will drop a single line that begs for a subplot, which is then either completely ignored or resolved in its entirety off-screen. Motivation and back-story are loosely defined at best, and broad, offensive stereotypes at worst.
This lack of attention carries over to the protagonists as well. The two lesbian characters are an auto-mechanic and a cop who meet playing volleyball. Sadly the stereotypes are pushed through the characters as they get a big dog, watch sports, drive a truck, go fishing and wear what can only be described as unhealthy amounts of plaid and denim. Steve Carell plays an important character who is both gay and Jewish. This portrayal is shown through how he is flamboyant, pushy, only wears purple, and calls everyone “honey”. The same goes for his Jewish background. In the very first shot of him, all that is in focus is his purple kippah and large, protruding nose. This character has the potential to create interesting and complex conflict, tackling the problem of how to get Hester enough media attention to pressure the freeholders to change their minds without so much media coverage that the whole ordeal devolves into a circus. Instead, the film mocks him, abandons that conflict and uses him only for poorly timed comic relief. In a film that is touting itself as progressive, (note the film’s #LoveIsLove marketing campaign) the characters that are supposed to be cared about are one dimensional parodies of themselves. It is inexplicable and inexcusable.
Overall Grade: D
Watch The Trailer:
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blk27Jj9UE8[/embedyt]
Actors of fully Jewish background: Logan Lerman, Natalie Portman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mila Kunis, Bar Refaeli, James Wolk, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Julian Morris, Adam Brody, Esti Ginzburg, Kat Dennings, Gabriel Macht, Erin Heatherton, Odeya Rush, Anton Yelchin, Paul Rudd, Scott Mechlowicz, Lisa Kudrow, Lizzy Caplan, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Gal Gadot, Debra Messing, Robert Kazinsky, Melanie Laurent, Shiri Appleby, Justin Bartha, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Margarita Levieva, Elizabeth Berkley, Halston Sage, Seth Gabel, Corey Stoll, Mia Kirshner, Alden Ehrenreich, Debra Winger, Eric Balfour, Jason Isaacs, Jon Bernthal, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy.
Andrew Garfield and Aaron Taylor-Johnson are Jewish, too (though I don’t know if both of their parents are).
Actors with Jewish mothers and non-Jewish fathers: Jake Gyllenhaal, Dave Franco, James Franco, Scarlett Johansson, Daniel Day-Lewis, Daniel Radcliffe, Alison Brie, Eva Green, Joaquin Phoenix, River Phoenix, Emmy Rossum, Rashida Jones, Jennifer Connelly, Sofia Black D’Elia, Nora Arnezeder, Goldie Hawn, Ginnifer Goodwin, Amanda Peet, Eric Dane, Jeremy Jordan, Joel Kinnaman, Ben Barnes, Patricia Arquette, Kyra Sedgwick, Dave Annable, Ryan Potter.
Actors with Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers, who themselves were either raised as Jews and/or identify as Jews: Ezra Miller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alexa Davalos, Nat Wolff, Nicola Peltz, James Maslow, Josh Bowman, Winona Ryder, Michael Douglas, Ben Foster, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nikki Reed, Zac Efron, Jonathan Keltz, Paul Newman.
Oh, and Ansel Elgort’s father is Jewish, though I don’t know how Ansel was raised. Robert Downey, Jr. and Sean Penn were also born to Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers. Armie Hammer and Chris Pine are part Jewish.
Actors with one Jewish-born parent and one parent who converted to Judaism: Dianna Agron, Sara Paxton (whose father converted, not her mother), Alicia Silverstone, Jamie-Lynn Sigler.