Freeheld

Whether it is an insanely popular young adult series (The Hunger Games) or American independent cinema at its best (Magnolia, Far from Heaven), if Julianne Moore is in it, we’re on the front row. In Freeheld, she is flanked by excellent co-stars like Ellen Page, Steve Carell, and Michael Shannon. But it is all in vain. Freeheld is a preachy movie that doesn’t have any shots or sequences that you couldn’t just as well watch on the small screen. The fact that the moral of the tale is noble and well-intentioned does little to help. The excellent cast is burdened with thin characters. The many clichés make you forget that the script is based on a true story. About a decade ago, police inspector Laurel Hester was told that she was terminally ill. She refused to accept the fact that her partner Stacie Andree would not receive her pension after her death because they are the same sex. The film reconstructs their battle against the injustice.



FREEHELD
US, 2015, dir.: Peter Sollett, act.: Julianne Moore, Ellen Page, Steve Carell, Michael Shannon, 103 min.