Freedomland (2006)

"Freedomland" has great performances from the always reliable Julianne Moore and Samuel L. Jackson as a frantic mother whose son has gone missing and an urban Jersey police detective, respectively. It could have been a great film, and it wants to be with such serious topics as racism and economic strive. But it's not. It never takes off, and some of the fault may lay in its obvious Susan Smith rip-off mother who goes full-wrong and creates a mythical black-man villain as the fall guy. But that's not the real problem. The downer lies in the film trying to be an upbeat social science lesson. It lays riots, child abduction, murder, beatings, mental illness, police brutality and all sorts of heavy issues on us, and then spins in a "Can't We All Get Along" mantra and a child's painting of children -- green, red, blue and yellow -- dancing in a circle. It's lefty-liberal brain is as empty as Rush Limbaugh's right-tighty noodle. C+