Review: Authentic, moving performances elevate 'Freeheld'

Few actresses bring the simple authenticity to the screen that Julianne Moore does; it's virtually impossible to imagine this actress sounding a false note. And so it's hardly a surprise that she is deeply convincing — indeed, heartbreaking at times — in the real-life role of Laurel Hester, a dying woman who fought to her last breath to give her domestic partner rights to her pension benefits.

If "Freeheld," directed by Peter Sollett, packs much less of a punch than did Moore's shattering Alzheimer's drama "Still Alice," which justly won her an Oscar, it's not because of the acting — Ellen Page and Michael Shannon also turn in admirable work — but because the film (and the script by Ron Nyswaner) doesn't give these characters, or their relationships, enough detail and depth to really bring us in below the surface. Instead, it's a well-made but matter-of-fact account of a gripping story, one made more poignant by the advances made in gay rights in the decade since.

We begin in 2002. Laurel Hester is a devoted police detective in Ocean County, New Jersey, with two decades of work under her belt and the goal of becoming the first female lieutenant on her force. With this goal in mind, she hides her sexuality from colleagues, even from her longtime partner, Dane (Shannon). Indeed, she goes all the way to Pennsylvania to find a date. At a volleyball game, she meets Stacie Andree (Page), a much younger auto mechanic.

A year later, they're an established couple, renovating a home and becoming official domestic partners. But then tragedy hits. A persistent pain in Laurel's torso turns out to be advanced lung cancer. Stacie vows the couple will beat the disease. Laurel, never one for sugarcoating a situation, knows how bleak the odds are.

The movie then takes an abrupt turn into a legal drama. Laurel requests in writing that her pension benefits be transferred to Stacie, who otherwise will have to leave their beloved home, upon her death. The decision falls to the Ocean County freeholders, a body of five Republicans, and they turn her down, despite the existence of a state Domestic Partnership Act. One of the freeholders worries: "People could just make anybody their partners." Only one member is sympathetic to Laurel's cause, but joins in a unanimous vote.

The fight escalates when Laurel appears at a freeholder's meeting, but the decision remains the same. The case gets into the media, though, and pressure grows. Meanwhile, we watch Laurel endure the ravages of chemo, see her get violently ill, see her hair fall out. We've watched this sad trajectory in countless movies, but Moore has a way of making most anything seem like we haven't quite seen it before.

The film changes tone yet again when Steve Carell enters the picture as Steven Goldstein, a larger-than-life activist who urges Laurel to broaden her fight to includegay marriage. Laurel, ever the pragmatist, says that's not her battle. Carell makes Goldstein brash, passionate and broadly funny, and though his entertaining characterization might well be accurate (the real Goldstein was sitting in front of me at my screening, and seemed to greatly enjoy the portrayal), the sudden influx of humor is somewhat jarring, given the tone until then.

The final scenes are both cathartic and, in the case of Laurel's final moments, hard to watch — Moore is frail, white, and completely bald. It's impressive to see the photos of real-life scenes at the end, and realize how carefully the filmmakers recreated the story.

And it's hard not to get swept up in the moment when an onscreen epilogue reminds us that in June, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples can marry. Which makes "Freeheld" an important lesson in how quickly times, and attitudes, can change.

"Freeheld," a Lionsgate release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America "for some thematic elements, language and sexuality." Running time: 103 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

By Jocelyn Noveck, AP National Writer. Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The Gayly – September 29, 2015 @ 6:55pm.