6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The true love story of Laurel Hester and Stacie Andree and their fight for justice. A decorated New Jersey police detective, Laurel is diagnosed with cancer and wants to leave her hard earned pension to her domestic partner, Stacie. However the county officials, Freeholders, conspire to prevent Laurel from doing this. Hard-nosed detective Dane Wells, and activist Steven Goldstein, unite in Laurel and Stacie's defense, rallying police officers and ordinary citizens to support their struggle for equality.
Starring: Elliot Page, Julianne Moore, Michael Shannon, Steve Carell, Luke GrimesRomance | 100% |
Biography | 73% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
English, English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Ron Nyswaner’s name may not be overly familiar to even those who consider themselves diehard credits readers, but Nyswaner’s one at bat as an Academy Award nominated scenarist came courtesy of his screenplay for Philadelphia, a film which many credit for having helped bring awareness of the realities (as opposed to the misconceptions) of AIDS to the general public. Nyswanger hasn’t been that busy crafting screenplays in the interim (according to the IMDb, his only post-Philadelphia big screen outing was his generally well received 2006 version of W. Somerset Maugham’s The Painted Veil), choosing instead to focus on teleplays and producing for such small screen series as Ray Donovan and Homeland. It may be that Nyswaner, who according to several online biographies is deeply committed to issues of gay rights, wanted to revisit the same cultural touchstone territory that informed Philadelphia with his work on Freeheld, a feature film more or less culled from the real life travails of Laurel Hester (Julianne Moore), travails which had been previously depicted in the Academy Award nominated documentary short sporting the same name as the feature film (and which is also included on this Blu-ray as a significant supplement). Freeheld concerns the now “moot” point (by way of last year’s Supreme Court decision, if no other intervening rulings by lower courts) that spousal benefits were at one point non-transferable between same sex couples. What on its face seems like a logical and simple request—namely, that Hester’s pension go to her (female) partner after Hester is diagnosed with terminal cancer—instead sparked considerable controversy and even umbrage in Ocean County, New Jersey, where Hester had long toiled as a police officer. Ironically, the lesser known term “freehold”, which in this case refers to the Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders (i.e., the local ruling authority, the county legislature), actually goes back to ancient British law and concerns real property which can be passed down from an owner (a freeholder) to his heirs and assigns. A similar ability to choose what happened to her assets (in this case, a pension) wasn’t available to Hester, and her efforts to make sure her money went where she wanted it to provides the dramatic impetus of the film.
Freeheld is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Digitally shot with Arri Alexa XT cameras, this is another recent film which offers a completely solid, technically near flawless presentation which nonetheless never really pops in any meaningful way, preferring instead to exploit a more tamped down, naturalistic and even perhaps verité approach toward its subject matter. Colors look very natural but are not especially well saturated, save for a couple of really stunning sequences set at the beach. Detail levels remain generally very high throughout the presentation, and some of the makeup work as Laurel's condition deteriorates is almost horrifying, especially in close-ups. Director Peter Sollett and French cinematographer Maryse Alberti (Creed) favor natural lighting conditions (or at least what looks like natural lighting conditions), with the results being occasionally slightly on the gauzy side, especially in some interior locations like the hospital.
Freeheld's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track offers some good if rather subtle immersion is scenes like the aforementioned beach sequences, or even in some early moments when Laurel is working in the busy police precinct environment, but otherwise this film tends to deal more in quieter dialogue moments, offering the bulk of the sonic content anchored front and center. A few source cues offer reasonable activity in the side and rear channels as well. Fidelity is fine, though dynamic range somewhat restrained.
Freeheld offers more than a few pages from Nyswaner's Philadelphia playbook, with a doomed focal character fighting for justice against seemingly insurmountable odds. Moore does fantastic work here, especially in the second half of the film. Page has less to do, but manages to create a believable character, often out of very little material. The thorn in the film's side is the atypically abrasive Carrell, who just doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the film's kind of staunchly noble take on its subject matter. Despite these and a few other missteps, the film is often quite moving and the chance to see it in tandem with the original documentary short is quite instructive on a number of levels. Recommended.
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