Ellen Page Asks Out Julianne Moore in First Freeheld Clip

Actress Julianne Moore attends the premiere of “Freeheld” on day 4 of the Toronto worldwide Film Festival at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto.

“Film reflects what’s going on in culture”. She’s tough and so deeply closeted that her longtime police-force partner Dane (Michael Shannon) is surprised to discover she’s living with Stacie (Ellen Page), the auto mechanic who’s been her domestic partner of one year, when he drops by unannounced with a housewarming present. It starts with the fact that the closest they can get to marriage is a domestic partnership, in a scene that smartly captures the underwhelming nature of this proposition.

This year Moore is back in Toronto with another portrayal of a woman afflicted. “It’s the same thing with the Supreme Court: When something comes up like that and there’s a ruling, it’s generally because popular opinion has changed or swayed”.

“We were all so delighted”, Moore continued. She’s not someone who attracts award attention for excessively dramatic roles, but most often for taking characters in positions of conflict or hardship and finding a way to subtly express the many layers of emotions that are brought out by real-life drama. It’s also very emotional, ” Bush Novak added. Based on how much of the festival’s elite came to celebrate the film, that story is certainly getting out there. They were joined by numerous Hollywood players who have decamped north of the border during the festival, from Lionsgate chief marketing officer Tim Palen to Freeheld director Peter Sollett and Orange Is the New Black’s Ruby Rose, who along with Page made chic women in menswear a theme of the evening.

The script by Ron Nyswaner (“Philadelphia“), inspired by a documentary of the same name, follows a familiar path as press coverage begins to sway public opinion and the dying Laurel appears one last time to plead her case beside an eloquent Stacie. “So I honestly just feel so grateful to be part of telling their story. That was the goal”. “She was first here at age 17 in 2004 with Wilby Wonderful, then her eventual Oscar nominated film Juno, Whip It and Super.”

“First and foremost it is an incredible love story, and I don’t think there’s a person in the world that can’t relate to that”, she said.

As I was watching this touching film, and seeing the audience around me responding so well to it, I kept thinking this is the kind of social issue film that the late great Stanley Kramer specialized in and regularly put a human face on. “And like a number of examples this year of the message outweighing the movie, the zeitgeist could keep “Freeheld” afloat for voters looking to make a statement”, the review said.