Freeheld's reviews
Media reviews
The A.V. Club
"Nowhere the film goes is unexpected... but the plainspoken Freeheld charts a mostly admirable course there".
The Wrap
"While it's an undeniably powerful film, it also seemingly feels the need to tread carefully".
Entertainment Weekly
"For all its clumsiness, the story resonates?and the photos that run over the final credits are a poignant reminder of the real life, not just the political legacy, that Laurel left behind".
Chicago Sun-Times
"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".
Rolling Stone
"If Freeheld cuts corners to get its point across, Moore and Page never do. You'll be with them all the way".
Empire
"Strong subject matter and a superb cast are treated disappointingly with sledgehammer subtlety".
Los Angeles Times
Having its heart and mind in the right place is not enough to make this a better movie than it is.
Toronto Star
"It hits the right sentimental moments but doesn't truly touch hearts as it settles into courtroom drama mode".
Roger Ebert
"The film?s heart is in the right place, but its focus is not".
Vulture
"Perhaps seeking not to sensationalize or to Hollywood-ize a story set in a drab, mundane world, Sollett shoots without any frills. That?s usually a good thing, but here it helps to suck the life out of the material ? in part because Nyswaner?s screenplay seems to have settled for the most direct, speechifying way of dramatizing the issues at hand".
New York Post
"It?s a disappointment as a movie, though Shannon is especially fine in a rare sympathetic role".
The Hollywood Reporter
"All the conviction the actors can muster can't make this script feel less pat".
Indiewire
"Unfortunately, while Julianne Moore and Ellen Page go great lengths to make the central romance convince, Nyswaner's undercooked script and Peter Sollett's direction have the opposite effect, reducing Freeheld to a tired formula".
Hitfix
"An impressive cast and significant real-life events can?t trump the fact it?s a badly made movie".
Time Out
"There?s no pleasure in trashing a film as humanistic and well-intentioned as Freeheld, but just because anyone would agree with its message doesn?t mean this glorified Lifetime movie does a worthy job of conveying it".
Variety
"Despite a credible and moving love story driven by strong performances from Julianne Moore and Ellen Page, director Peter Sollett?s film is an oppressively worthy and self-satisfied inspirational vehicle that views its story primarily as a series of teachable moments".
The Washington Post
"A lugubrious cloud of mediocrity sets in early in Freeheld, a dreary dramatization of a pivotal gay rights case that paved the way for marriage equality".
The Playlist
A would-be but not-actually-inspiring movie about a landmark LGBT rights case that loses sight of the flesh and blood people at its heart, gets bogged down in tedious municipal politics and fails to find a way to compellingly dramatize an important story.