FOR LOVE & MONEY
Fight for a pension causes tension in well-meaning but one-sided ‘Freeheld’
We’re deep into the conflict at the heart of “Freeheld” when Steve Carell comes barreling into the picture as a selfdescribed “big loud gay Jew” who turns protest into performance art, calls everyone “honey” and “sweetheart,” and then reminds us again he’s a “big loud gay Jew.”
Sometimes a scene-stealing comic relief performance is just what a tearjerker needs. Sometimes it’s indicative of the film itself in that it’s a little too one-sided and lacking in nuance.
“Freeheld” is a classic example of a well-made, well-acted film with the best of intentions— but a disappointingly heavy-handed method of delivering its message. We’re left admiring the hell out of the real-life characters on which the movie was based but also wishing this fictionalized version of their story wasn’t so obvious about its mission.
Inspired by Cynthia Wade’s Oscar-winning documentary short, “Freeheld” recounts the story of Laurel Hester, a decorated, 23-year veteran of the Ocean County, New Jersey, police department, who in the mid-2000s petitioned to leave her pension to her legal domestic partner, Stacie Andree.
Before the battle lines have been drawn, director Peter Sollett (“Raising Victor Vargas”) and screenwriter Ron Nyswaner (“Philadelphia”) lay a foundation made of two movies: one a standard- issue cop flick showing Hester (Julianne Moore) and her partner Dane Wells (Michael Shannon) busting drug dealers and working homicide cases in Ocean County; the other a meet-cute romance between Hester, who is firmly ensconced in the closet, and Stacie (Ellen Page), a feisty mechanic with a chip on her shoulder.
Some of the courtship scenes are tender and funny; at least two ring false. (When Stacie wins amechanic’s job in a garage by taking on the local record-holder in a tire-rotation competition, it’s just goofy.)
It seems like Laurel and Stacie have just moved into their fixerupper of a house, acquired a lovably oversized dog and settled into their domestic partnership when Laurel says she “pulled a muscle” — leading to a visit to the doctor, which leads to the dreaded phone call a few days later, which leads to a shocking diagnosis. Laurel is in the advanced stages of lung cancer, and she has less than a 10 percent chance of surviving.
Enter the struggle. Laurel wants her pension to go to Stacie so Stacie can keep the house where they built a life together. This leads to more than one unenlightened character delivering variations on the line, “But those benefits are for married people!,” as well as a number of scenes in which five white male county commissioners find it increasingly difficult to explain why a heterosexual spouse can receive a deceased spouse’s full pension, while the loving partner of a dedicated police detective has no rights.
The county commissioners are officially known as “Freeholders.” Symbolism noted, as they’re clearly withholding freedom from some.
There’s a lot of talk about the county’s conservative voting base, and how these men would be committing political suicide and (in some cases) betraying their religious beliefs by voting in favor of Stacie receiving benefits— which in fact they have the right to do.
As the political battle heats up and Carell’s Steven Goldstein buses in protesters and courts the media, the relationship between Laurel and Stacie takes a back seat. Laurel’s cop partner Dane urges his colleagues— including a closeted gay cop and a homophobic moron who calls Laurel “the dyke”— to join him in supporting her.
Michael Shannon plays one of the more sympathetic characters of his career in Dane, who will do anything for Laurel because he knows she’d do the same if their situations were reversed. Moore sports a Farrah Fawcett “Charlie’s Angels” hairdo and lays on the Jersey accent to the point of distraction, but she’s her usual excellent self, whether she’s awkwardly allowing Stacie into her life or struggling to catch enough breath to utter a single sentence. Ellen Page is playing a flannel-wearing mechanic who loves to ride motorcycles, and Stacie isn’t the most richly layered of characters, but the performance is steady.
Of course “Freeheld” is timely. It would be interesting to hear what the likes of Mike Huckabee and a certain county clerk in Kentucky would have to say about this film — though I guess we already know they’d say it’s an elite liberal Hollywood glorification of gay sinners who want to destroy the sanctity of “real marriage.”
It’s just a shame “Freeheld” couldn’t state its case without stating its case so often.