- Actors: Boyd Holbrook, Elisabeth Moss, Octavia Spencer
- Director: Jason Lew
- Format: Color, NTSC, Widescreen
- Language: English
- Region: Region 1
- Number of discs: 1
- Rated: R
- Studio: MPI HOME VIDEO
- DVD Release Date: January 17, 2017
- Run Time: 102 minutes
It would be easy
to dismiss the faults in The Free World
as a result of it being Jason Lew’s directorial debut, but this is his
sophomore film as a screenwriter and that is also where the largest problems
are in the film. And to blame the direction would mean ignoring the strongest
element of the film, which is the acting. Certainly much of the credit goes to
the lead performers, though Lew must have done something right, even if that
was simply getting out of the way to let these veteran actors thrive.
Unfortunately, these strengths are overshadowed by the fact that The Free World is embarrassingly similar
to another performance-based crime film from only a couple years ago.
In The Free World, a previously violent
ex-convict named Mo (Boyd Holbrook) works at an animal shelter, caring for dogs
deemed dangerous as well as the ones beaten by violent owners. When one of
these badly beaten dogs is brought in by a man who clearly also takes his
aggression out on his wife, Doris (Elisabeth Moss), Mo becomes unintentionally
involved in the conflict. Doris and Mo built an unusual relationship which
inevitably turns romantic, though Lew is less concerned with this than pounding
the audience over the head with the animal rescue theme, going so far as to
hide Doris in a dog carrier in one scene.
This metaphor
may not have seemed quite so heavy-handed if it hadn’t recently been used in a
much better film. The Drop starred
Tom Hardy as a previously violent man who discovers a badly beaten dog which
leads him to a relationship with a woman whose ex used to beat her, and who is
also responsible for the beating of the dog. The Drop was based on a short story called “Animal Rescue,” just in
case the comparison is not clear. It also doesn’t help that Holbrook has
similar features as Hardy, making it impossible not to compare the
performances. This is a shame, because Holbrook gives a breakout performance
which is overshadowed by an actor from another film.
The fault of the
film’s shortcomings lands unequivocally on the screenwriting, which is
heavy-handed at times and woefully understated at other moments. There were key
plot developments lost within the half-written dialogue, important information
never given proper emphasis. It quickly becomes a movie that is only held
together by the performances, and they are just good enough to nearly
compensate for some of the more amateurish elements of filmmaking. It makes
sense that Lew has most of his film experience in front of the camera, as the
acting is all that saves this movie from being a confusing and derivative mess.
Moss and
Holbrook give spectacular performances as two wounded animals in need of
rescue, but also ones capable of biting back if trapped in a corner. As ham-fisted
as the theme is, and as similar as it may be to another film with the exact
same symbolism, Holbrook and Moss elevate Lew’s film far beyond what the
material deserves. But that doesn’t mean that all casting decisions have the
same impact. While Octavia Spencer has one or two decent scenes as the manager
of the animal shelter, her presence is almost too distracting when it becomes
apparent that the role is little more than a glorified cameo. Casting a
familiar face and name is only helpful if they are properly utilized, but
Spencer’s inclusion mostly just left me wondering why her talent was wasted.
She unceremoniously disappears from the narrative after the first fifteen
minutes, but it takes the film devolving into an outlaw road trip to realize
that her character was never significant to begin with.
The DVD has no
special features.
Entertainment Value:
5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 6.5/10
Historical
Significance: 4/10
Special Features: 0/10
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