Julianne Moore, Ellen Page In ‘Freeheld’ Premieres Sunday; New Clip Released

Unfortunately, an impressive cast and significant real-life events can’t trump the fact it’s a badly made movie.

Earlier this year, it was announced Juno actress Ellen Page would star in and produce the drama – starring opposite Oscar victor Julianne Moore. It plays, at some points, like an episode of Law & Order, and at others like a Lifetime movie. As will this recently released clip showing the day the two women meet for the first time. As Laurel’s case builds steam, every moment is weighed for maximum impact.

Time passes and Laurel and Stacie fall madly in love.

It’s not long after that Hester is diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. Had they been a homosexual married couple, Laurel leaving her pension to Stacie would have been an automatic option.

“We were partners right away”. All she wants to do is award her pension to her partner so that she can afford to keep their house, but the local government denies her request simply because her partner happens to be a woman.

The tone changes dramatically after Laurel’s diagnosis, though it then takes another shift when Steve Carell enters as a flamboyant gay activist who organized protests against the Freeholders’ decision.

The resulting media attention forces an ending that is admittedly moving, but the emotions seemingly come from the “it’s nearly like a movie” sequence of historical events. “It’s hard to get invested in fairly unremarkable, underdeveloped characters when they feel more like pawns in a larger, if well-meaning, political agenda”. Positive intentions aside, if anyone is to take creative blame for the pictures by the numbers storyline its him.

Laurel died in 2005, so it’s a period piece of a very recent period.

Real-life buddies and on-screen sisters Evan and Ellen at the Into the Forest premiere. “She was a police officer, and thought of herself as a good guy and a defender of people”, Julianne explained. If you haven’t watched the trailer in full yet: Do it. And for a movie that counts on heartstrings being tugged, he makes refreshingly restrained use of Hans Zimmer’s score, along with some nice Jersey-flavored guitar by Johnny Marr. It all looks and feels like a TV movie and it doesn’t even have the production value of an HBO one at that. The film stars actresses Julianne Moore and Ellen Page as Laurel and Stacie respectively, and is based off the Oscar-winning 2007 documentary of the same name.

His tone deaf characterization, and Sollet’s clear love for the character, upends the strong foundation set by Moore and Page, who become supporting players in their own story for much of Freeheld’s second half. Now, that’s a legacy Laurel and Stacie can be proud of.