A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Directed by Joe Roth, Freedomland is a thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore, about a woman whose young son is kidnapped as she drives through a predominantly black neighbourhood, and the extreme unrest that is generated when the predominantly white police spend far more resources trying to solve the case than they ever spend on crimes in which black people are the victims.  It all sounds quite compelling to me, but has got ferociously bad reviews, and disappeared from cinemas quicker than the cops disappeared when they heard there was a special offer on at the donut place.

Musically, Freedomland does not fare well.  The immensely popular and successful James Newton Howard is on board, and it's the first release of his music since King Kong; if he picked up any new fans from that who rushed out to buy this one as well, lord knows what they must think.  Bland and forgettable, it doesn't amount to much of any interest at all.  It's probably just fine in the film (Howard scores always are) but, like several of his scores for thrillers like this, doesn't do enough to warrant listening to away from it.  With much synthetic droning, occasional bursts from an electric guitar, and anonymous string noodling, most of the album passes by without anything much happening at all.  The six-minute titular seventh track sums everything up perfectly, building from a place of nothing happening to another place of nothing happening over its generous length.

There are a handful of exceptions which lift the album from the dreary basement it might otherwise occupy: the opening minute or so of the first track is reasonably dynamic; "Inside Freedomland" is by far the most interesting piece here, with some lovely wind writing a good example of Howard at his best; and "Little Angel" at the end is predictably sweet, but also perfectly satisfying.  These are relatively slim pickings though, and the album as a whole is a drag.  Howard's finest scores come when he is writing thrilling, dynamic, colourful orchestral music in Wyatt Earp or Dinosaur or King Kong, with incredibly variable results elsewhere.  Sadly, Freedomland is at the lower end of his output.

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Tracks

1. Main Title (3:43)
2. The Lie (2:58)
3. Brenda's Apartment (2:27)
4. Unrest (4:26)
5. Did They Arrest Anyone? (2:17)
6. Rafik is Arrested (2:08)
7. Freedomland (6:01)
8. Inside Freedomland (3:02)
9. You're in the Wrong Park (4:01)
10. Burning (4:26)
11. Riot (4:25)
12. I'll Come See You (2:21)
13. Little Angel (2:48)