Freeheld [Blu-ray]

Director: Peter Sollett Peter Sollett

Overview

This drama is based on Laurel Hester a New Jersey police lieutenant (Julianne Moore) and her domestic partner Stacie Andree (Ellen Page) who battle to have pension benefits from Hester pass on to her partner after she is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Directed by Peter Sollett. Also stars Steve Carell, Michael Shannon, Josh Charles, Luke Grimes, Mary Birdsong and Gabriel Luna.

Product Details

Release Date:	02/02/2016
UPC:	0031398234845
Original Release:	2015
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	LIONSGATE - 600000-AEC LGE
Language:	English
Sales rank:	45,974

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Julianne Moore	Laurel Hester
Elliot Page	Stacie Andree
Michael Shannon	Dane Wells,Actor
Steve Carell	Steven Goldstein
Josh Charles	Bryan Kelder
Luke Grimes	Todd Belkin
Mary Birdsong	Carol Andree
Gabriel Luna	Quesada
Dennis Boutsikaris	Pat Gerry
Skipp Sudduth	Reynolds,Actor
Tom McGowan	Bill Johnson
Jeannine Kaspar	Margaret
Anthony DeSando	Toohey
Kevin O'Rourke	Dan Wickery
Melody Krell	Stacie's Teammate
Stink Fisher	Jake
Suzanne Savoy	Town Clerk
Kelly Deadmon	Lynda Hester
Mary Joy	Estelle
Chris Skeries	Protester
Karl Jacob	Jeeter
Mina Sundwall	Maya Kelder
Robbie Tann	Thug
Ice Aysun Leidl	Stacie's Teammate
Justine S. Harrison	Maggie
Dane B. Wells	Honor Guard
Joe Diomede	Derrick
Jessica Pressman	TV Reporter
Susan Merson	Harriet
Henny Russell	Dr. Sarah Tonner
Oliver Solomon	Security Guard
Tom Place	Driver of Jeep
Traci Hovel	Hannah
Julie Reiber	Cat
Jess Jacobs	Stacie's Team Member
Portia Reiners	Chrisy Miller
William Sadler	Peter Santucci
Adam LeFevre	Don Bennett
Sahr Ngaujah	Father John
Hans Zimmer	Composer
Johnny Marr	Composer

Technical Credits

Ron Nyswaner

Peter Sollett	Director
Compton Ross	Producer
Jack Selby	Producer
Kelly Bush	Producer
Duncan Montgomery	Producer
Cynthia Wade	Producer
Julie Goldstein	Producer
Stacey Sher	Producer
James D. Stern	Producer
Michael Shamberg	Producer
Ron Nyswaner	Screenwriter
Hilary Davis	Executive Producer
Adam Del Deo	Executive Producer
Richard Fischoff	Executive Producer
Stephen Kelliher	Executive Producer
Taylor Latham	Executive Producer
Ameet Shukla	Executive Producer
Elliot Page	Producer
Phil Hunt	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Laurel Hester (Julianne Moore) is one of the most respected investigators in the tough, boy's club police department of Ocean County, NJ, in the late '90s. Her passion for fairness and justice means that she is willing to sacrifice everything for her work, including the luxury of outing herself as a lesbian in her small, conservative town. She won't even attend an event as innocuous as an all-female volleyball game unless it's an hour away in Philadelphia -- but when she goes, she immediately catches the eye of Stacie Andree (Ellen Page), a butch pixie nearly half her age. Hester is fearless when it comes to hunting down criminals, but this time it's the obviously smitten Andree who chases Hester, screwing up her courage to ask for the older woman's number after the game. The romance between Laurel Hester and Stacie Andree is now a matter of public record, due to the legal battle that ensued after Hester was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 2004. While putting her affairs in order, she designated Andree, her domestic partner, as the beneficiary of her pension benefits, which would let her continue to afford the mortgage payments on the home they had renovated together. Much to her shock -- and despite the fact that New Jersey state law opened this option to domestic partners -- the town council of "freeholders" used their veto option to turn down Hester's request. Only after continual pressure from activists and the press did Ocean County's board of freeholders reverse their policy in 2006, just weeks before Hester succumbed to cancer -- by then, her fight started a precedent that led to same-sex couples gaining additional rights in New Jersey and beyond. This heartbreaking and awe-inspiring story was previously brought to the screen by Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth in a 2007 Oscar-winning short-subject documentary also called Freeheld. Wade is credited as a producer on this movie, and the screenplay is by Ron Nyswaner, who also wrote the script for the Oscar-winning AIDS legal drama Philadelphia -- a pedigreed group matched by the on-camera talent, which includes Michael Shannon as Hester's partner on the force and Steve Carell in a delightful bonbon of a cameo as garrulous gay activist Steven Goldstein. Even though the scenes of Hester and Andree's life together aren't as nuanced as those presented in Moore's other lesbian domestic drama, The Kids Are All Right, there isn't a moment where either Moore or Page's sincerity is ever in doubt. But even their best efforts can't make this melodrama less polemic, its characters less stereotyped, or its conclusion less self-congratulatory. In fact, anyone who's watched any of the recent Christian-issue movies like God's Not Dead or A Matter of Faith will recognize a similarly hectoring tone in this picture, flip-flopped this time to fit liberal concerns: Honest, everyday folks on the side of what they believe is right struggle against ignorant establishment cronies, with a well-earned vindication for our heroes and a dose of schadenfreude for the fuddy-duddy bullies in the end. (When one fat, pompous freeholder harrumphs, apropos of nothing, that giving Andree the pension benefits "violates the sanctity of marriage," the only thing he's missing is a Snidely Whiplash moustache to twirl. Did the filmmakers consider that making their villain a fully fleshed-out character, with his own complex motivations and convictions, would have made their heroes' eventual triumph even sweeter? There's no glory in winning against a cardboard cutout.) The highest purpose of drama is to illuminate a shared humanity, to offer an entryway into the empathetic truth of another person's experience, regardless of how that experience agrees with our own convictions. By turning the true story of a woman's last-gasp efforts to make sure the person she loves will still be cared for after her death into a self-satisfied pep rally, the filmmakers are abdicating a responsibility to drama's highest calling. Freeheld has noble aspirations and works as a good-hearted tearjerker, but for real insight into love, death, and justice, stick to the short documentary instead.