Review: Freeheld

The true story of police detective Laurel Hester (Julianne Moore), a lesbian who keeps her private life away from her colleagues, who respect her as an officer of the law. She meets and falls in love with Stacie (Ellen Page) an ‘out’ mechanic some 19 years Laurel’s junior. The real meat of the story comes in 2005 when some unfortunate and truly devastating news for Laurel sees her sexuality being brought out more into the open as she has to fight for her and Stacie’s legal rights. Michael Shannon plays Laurel’s well-meaning partner on the force, Steve Carell plays a campy and crusading gay rights activist (who is also Jewish), whilst Dennis Boutsikaris, William Sadler, Tom McGowan, and Josh Charles play the Board of Freeholders.

 

Despite centring on an issue I think is very important, this 2015 film from director Peter Sollett (“Nick and Norah’s Film I Haven’t Yet Seen”) is yet another example of another true story that isn’t necessary to be told in fictional film form. I’m a big believer in gay rights and same-sex marriage, but that doesn’t automatically make a film about the subject worthy in and of itself. Scripted by Ron Nyswaner (“Mrs. Soffel”), this really is a collection of stereotypes, clichés, themes and events covered previously in several other films. It brings absolutely nothing significantly new or interesting to the table. I know it’s based on a true story, but that doesn’t mean I have to enjoy seeing so many clichés in one story. I’m glad Julianne Moore’s character has a flowing Farrah Fawcett hairdo here, because her lack of a ‘butch’ hairdo is one of the few clichés missing from her character (She plays volleyball for fuck’s sake). Even then, Ellen Page ticks that one off the list, whilst also playing a lesbian mechanic. Yep. Page, who actually came out for real during the filming of this movie, also wears a frigging plaid shirt to boot. It’s all so corny, true or not.

 

On the plus side, Julianne Moore gives a perfectly fine performance. However, she really needs to stop playing lesbians (“The Kids Are Alright”, to a certain extent “Chloe”) and gravely ill characters (“Still Alice”) for the time being. Here she gets to play both, and it’s getting a bit old to be honest. Combine the story/character clichés and the fact that Moore and Page (who looks absolutely nothing like her real-life counterpart) share mother-daughter chemistry, and you’ve got a film that just didn’t work for me. Actually, it might even be mother-son chemistry, because Page looks like a young boy here, and not just because of the haircut. To be honest, even if Moore and Page did have romantic chemistry we still don’t get much of a sense of their love anyway, because the film (and the characters) focus so much on legal and health issues.

 

For some, the mixture of disease movie and gay movie will seem fresh. It’s actually not, though. The excellent “Philadelphia” already did it (scripted by Nyswaner himself, no less), and even dealt with the issue of spousal recognition, albeit much more briefly. I just felt like, important issue or not (and it absolutely is important), this basic material was old hat, especially with “Still Alice” and “The Kids Are Alright” so fresh in my memory. Also not helping matters is a performance by Steve Carell that appears to have come in from an entirely different, more comedic script. Wearing a yarmulke in his opening scene and playing things waaaaay too broad (as in BROAAAADWAAAAY!), he works well with Michael Shannon, but there’s something slightly insincere about his performance that rubbed me the wrong way. Shannon, by the way, deserves full credit for being so damn good in a role that isn’t anything special. He plays it like he’s the lead character or a plum supporting player, when really it’s a thankless role. That’s a damn fine, committed actor. Josh Charles, Dennis Boutsikaris, William Sadler, and Kenny from “Frasier” (Tom McGowan) are all wasted in truly thankless parts as guys whose only function is to be wrong at just about every given opportunity.

 

Michael Shannon is terrific, but this is yet another film that seems to believe that if the issue itself is important, that’s the only thing that matters. No, you actually need to surround that issue with a well-made, interesting, and insightful film. This is clichéd, familiar, and true story or not, nothing you really need to see. I wanted to love this, but I didn’t even like it.

 

Rating: C