Freedomland

Freedomland is set in Dempsy, New Jersey, where a badly injured white woman named Brenda Martin turns up at a hospital claiming a Black man pulled her from her car and drove off with her four-year-old son asleep in the back. Detective Lorenzo Council takes on the search, and a missing-children's advocate joins the effort as time runs short. When suspicion settles on the mostly Black housing projects on the city's edge, tension between residents and the largely white police force erupts into angry protest. Council begins to doubt whether Brenda's account is complete, and the inquiry turns more complicated than the allegations first suggest.

Joe Roth directed the film, the fourth he made, following Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise, America's Sweethearts and Christmas with the Kranks. Richard Price wrote the screenplay, Scott Rudin produced, and the cast is led by Samuel L. Jackson as Council and Julianne Moore as Brenda, with Edie Falco, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, William Forsythe and Anthony Mackie among the credited players.

Released in February 2006, the film cost about 38 million dollars and took in roughly 15 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds a 5.3 rating from around 370 votes, while the critics' score stands at 4.6 from 148 reviews, leaving both measures in similar, modest territory.