Yes No Maybe So: Freeheld
Thursday, July 23, 2015 at 10:40AM Manuel here eager to discuss the new trailer for Julianne Moore and Ellen Page's upcoming lesbian drama, Freeheld. Nat is swamped off-blog today so it's up to me to rush in to talk about this (ugh watermarked!!) trailer that premiered last night. We all know where the TFE readership will fall in pre-viewing collective excitement about Peter Sollet's film about the legal fight of a local cop with the Ocean County, New Jersey Board of Chosen Freeholders over her pension benefits transferring to her domestic partner after she's diagnosed with lung cancer. But that won’t stop us from submitting it to our handy Yes No Maybe So test, and typing YES several times in the next couple of paragraphs.
The breakdown and trailer after the jump...
Hey can I have your number?"
Yes. We open with a meet-cute (at volleyball no less!) and follow it up with a lighthearted scene during a stakeout that allows Michael Shannon and Julianne Moore to show what great scene partners they make.
If you could have anything what would it be?"
Maybe so. All films about disease and death are required to start with sunniness but might it be too cloying? The idyllic beach setting and the dialogue certainly edge it that way but let's cop it up to the brevity required by the trailer format
Me too."
Yes. Trust Julianne to bring us right back; look at the weariness in her eyes even as she utters a hopeful line
Yes. Chemistry-wise it looks like Page & Moore are in fine form. Seeing great actresses play off of one another is always a cause for joy. We don't see it often enough. Between Rooney & Cate, Julia & Nicole, Kate & Judy, and the Suffragette gals we are headed for an Actressy Fall!
Maybe So. "Inspired by True Events"; we get it, but the trailer (and marketing) may lean on this too heavily when it looks they have a solid film without overstating that. I will say, this looks glossier than I'd have pictured it; Maryse Alberti (of The Wrestler and Velvet Goldmine) shot it.
Maybe So. Exposition-heavy dialogue now walking us through the plot. These scenes always play better in context rather than as Cliff Notes for moviegoers, no?
I've never asked for special treatment. I'm only asking for equality."
Yes. Those of us who watched Still Alice know that Moore on a lectern is spellbinding. Might the performances be what pulls this from being anything more than a "Very Special TV Movie"?
Double YES:
I am not a radical; I am a middle-class Jewish homosexual from New Jersey. How about you, sweetheart?"
I am a straight, white, ex-Protestant, atheist cop. You okay with that, sweetheart?"
Yes. May Carrell & Shannon embrace lighthearted performances more often; the former's a pro at them but seems to think "prestige" equals drab drama, and the latter is often so captivating in full brooding mode that it's refreshing to see him so loose.
Maybe So. "In 2005, Laurel Hester taught the world that love is love." Am I just cranky that I find this type of rhetoric sort of... unseemly?
Yes. Thankfully the film offers us a strong Page to counteract that tagline; this is a personal project for the actress who has, since her breakout role in Juno, come out and become a brave member of the LGBTQ* community. From what little we see her she's definitely eager to show what she can do with demanding material like this.
"Is that a proposal?"
YES. Moore's raspy voice is all sorts of YES!; even in the zingiest moment of the trailer you can feel her gravitas.
YES!!!!! Your daily reminder that Julianne Moore is an Academy Award winner! (And yes, I may or may not have cropped out that pesky watermark; nothing should distract you from seeing those words flash on the screen)
Page YES! Shannon YES! Adorable Moore/Page: YES AND YES. Though am I the only wondering why Carrell (another Academy Award nominee) doesn't make it to the credits? Is his role more of a cameo?
Then it's too much too screencap but the music swells and the drama amps up with Josh Charles wanting to be the voice of reason and we end with the couple that began it all:
"All I want is justice for the woman I love."
Overall, as you can guess, I am a YES even if the marketing is surely working some weepie/zeitgeisty/human spirit narrative that comes off a tad too contrived. I half expected a brazen hashtag to pop up at the end of the trailer and... Oh. There is! (#LoveisLove). Not that that’ll stop us from cheering on Page & Moore when this comes out in October.
Did the trailer make you more assured about this film's chances, Oscar and otherwise or less?
Reader Comments (36)
This trailer actually lowered my expectations. I do see the purpose of making stories like this into something very middlebrow and accessible, but it looks earnest to a fault. It also makes 2005 look like 1987, somehow. I hope I'm proved wrong.
Oh wait, of course, I guess the actual relationship didn't start in 2005 - so maybe that's feathered flashback hair? And Ellen Page just doesn't age because she's Ellen Page.
Mmm. Unlike Suffragette or The Revenant (which due to their irritating grey palates are HARD maybes that would require 90%+ RT scores and lots of Oscar noms for me to even risk them), this one's actually a far softer maybe (let's say 70% and at least one Oscar nom).
Hard to say if the film will devolve into platitudes and cliches like I feared it might, but the trailer does raise my hopes for acting Oscar noms. If the film is well received, Julianne looks to be tough to exclude.
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Duh, yes.
I'm a Yes - even though I have the same reservations that you mention here, it would have to get near-disaster level of reviews for me to skip it.
Both Carell and Shannon look amazing in this. In fact I'm really relieved to see Shannon playing a really caring person as opposed to the not so nice ones he gets stuck with. I wonder if either of them can get supporting recognition. Julianne looks she will be nominated.
Seems a bit cosy and didn't MOORE do her lectern acting last year and deservedly won for all the times she lost or was snubbed,any Moore is good,Shannon is so cool here,no and Academy Award nominee for Steve Carell seems odd since he was really lucky to get that nod,you'd think he's be shouting from the rooftops and I was one of those pleased to see him nominated for Foxcatcher..
Appears to have a good cast, but I'm a No for the theatrical release. Probably a Yes when it comes on Amazon Prime or Netflix. Like other true-to-life stories (e.g., Lorenzo's Oil, Dallas Buyers Club), these films, no matter how well-acted and well-written, are perfectly suited to television viewing, so I'll wait.
I'm hoping that Ellen Page speaks in something other than a monotone, and as much as I like Julianne Moore, she shouldn't try to do accents (esp New Jersey and/or Boston) because she's not very good at it. Nice to see Michael Shannon smile though.
Yes: love Ellen Page, so distinctive and full of energy and a sense of fun.
Yes: Michael Shannon is in this? Love him, he touches my heart (even as The Iceman).
Yes: Maryse Alberti? Who understands how to illuminate characters with cinematography? Oscar nomination, please.
Looks so, so glossy. These real people were all so working class New Jersey -- why does it all feel so clean and articulate? The next wave of LGBT stories should explore less white-washed portrayals of the community -- that does not just mean race, that also means other standards of beauty and, especially, class and education.
I love this summer in my life. but....this is a hint of why i love the fall - good movies!
Looks somewhat pedestrian to me… I know <Moore is idolized on this blog….
she is a very good actress………but great!!?? she does not usually go out of her box in her film roles… a great actress is someone who is totally different in all kinds of roles …
not too many greats around anymore
I share the same reservations about the trailer (touch too glossy, leaning heavily on clichés), but MAN, Michael Shannon looks great here. How refreshing to see a softer, kinder side to him.
(And Juli and Ellen look amazing, obvs.)
So rick your saying Moore plays the same roles just this last yr she was in 3 different roles,an alzheimer's suffering proessor,a crazy washed up actress and a dragon/witch,now she's a lesbian suffering from cancer plus she's Amber Waves and the 2 Cathys and Barbrara Bakeland,& Charley with the filthy jokes and so on,anyone come up with some cos your going to find it hard.
This trailer does not look great IMO which is a shame because I'm convinced that Page is a huge star who is not treated as such. Oscar may still bite cause it hits a lot of their sweet spots but I am 90% sure I'll hate it based off of that. For one it just looks bad and for two i don't like movies that scream IM IMPORTANT over and over again at you
This trailer definitely comes off as one of those shameless oscar plays. Which is a shame, given that the source material seems really good. Worried along with everyone else that the glossiness and feel-good vibe is somehow off-putting. Movies on topics like this still do need to be made more though! Just not quite sure this is the right one... Maybe.
T-Bone: An overtly bright and glossy annoys me way less than a movie using grey filters badly.
I really want to like it, but that's not a good trailer at all. Very cheesy and poorly cut.
This one gets a MAYBE. Team Carol.
It has a 90s "issues" movie vibe. As if Ron Nyswaner wrote it immediately after Philadelphia.
Let me see.... OH HELL YEAH!!!
I see pretty much every Moore film, but I am not impressed with Carell, who came across as a straight guy doing an impression of a gay man.
Amen to the critiques about the glossy look (and overall cheesiness of the trailer itself). I grew up in the town where this story really happened. The real place is so far from glossy -- it's gritty, Much of it is working class, the conservative core of an otherwise fairly liberal state. The original documentary is so powerful because it honestly depicts that. I still want to believe this movie will be good, but the trailer has diminished my hopes a bit.
I was looking forward to this, but it come across as a TV movie from this trailer.. everything looks pretty bad. Julianne seems to be in fine form, but everything just seems cheesy. I'm a no at this point.
I am disturbed that people would use Rotten Tomatoes as their major barometer for whether they see a film (I largely go by friend's recommendations and my own personal interest in the actors or filmmaker), but whatever floats your boat. I had a similar reaction to this trailer. Despite the great news regarding the recent Supreme Court decision on gay marriage, this trailer feels like too much and oddly, untimely strident. Julianne Moore needs to smile more and suffer less, as the great Pauline Kael once suggested for the great Meryl Streep. And I will totally cop to my own age difference issues, but isn't Julianne Moore old enough to be Ellen Page's mother? This would have to be great to get my $12.
I'm not too keen on the trailer but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a yes before the ink dried on Moore's contract.
Jono: I have no especial interest in these actors and this filmmaker and don't REALLY have friends, but different trailers create different minimum percentages and nod counts. This one has a 70% score and the probability of at least one nod as enough of a push. The Revenant and Suffragette, meanwhile, need to be pulling 90%+ scores and the probability of at least six or seven nods due to what comes off as potentially irritating use of grey filter.
YES: Julianne Moore, Peter Sollett
Yes: Ellen Page, Michael Shannon, Steve Carrell, Josh Charles
Meh: Trailer overall
no: Ron Nyswaner
Yeah, when it comes to lesbians, I think I am a Carol person, too. (And how can anyone be a Freeheld person? This looks so cheap!)
I'll be your friend. This site is endlessly entertaining with good writers and thinkers.
The best part about this trailer is "Academy Award Winner Julianne Moore." HELL YES!
Looks so much cheaper than I was expecting.
I totally didnt lightly cheer at my workstation when Academy Award WINNER FINALLY appeared above Juliana's name, totally haha
Jono -- the age difference is actually true to the real story, but yes... she is old enough to be her mother :)
Cal
LOLUgh, why does this look so bad? Like a terrible 90s movie :( Hoping it turns out well in the end for all involved, but right now I'm afraid I'm a no.