Too much of everything

Simply Perfect

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Anna Paquin leads a very competent cast to portray Christina, a mother of two who flees an abusive relationship. She heads south into an ever increasing storm of drug influenced business - as their lives become paradoxically easier and more difficult at the same time.The lead roles are compelling, with Paquin showing moments of superior skill, proving that her Oscar from 1993 was no fluke. As it's a true story, the story line is a series of dramatized facts, woven together in a nearly challenging way.The attention to 1970s set, wardrobe and script (a Walton's reference!) was superb - throwing my head space back into my own 1970s childhood a number of times.The movie could have been preachy, but wasn't - it instead conveys the practical necessities that sometimes cloud choices. Christina was confronted with truly desperate situation, and we are left to consider the magnitude of that in a world more sexist than today.I was left with the sense that this movie entirely escapes the worst of Hollywood, rather it has an Indie feel to it that I found enjoyable.

It's 1977. Christina Willand (Anna Paquin) escapes her abusive partner taking her daughters MJ (Liana Liberato) and Shell (Ava Acres) from Barberton, Ohio to Sandy (Drea de Matteo) in Florida. Christina gets a job cleaning mansions. Sandy gets her involved dealing with Ray (Cam Gigandet) and the Bossman. They are soon transporting large amounts of drugs. The family is given a house to live in while the Bossman stores drugs in the barn.I think this movie is set up for something better. Instead, the story just lays there without sustained drama. It's a bit random and disjointed. Christina as a character doesn't change enough to be compelling. This may be better off as a movie about MJ and her relationship with her mother. Her character changes much more from telling her little sister to come clean about stealing gum to dealing with her drug transporting mom to falling into troubled herself. She's traveling a more compelling journey. I also don't understand why they wouldn't dramatize the climatic crash with Sandy instead of the new character Rain. This is supposedly director/writer Shana Betz's real life as the character Shell and maybe she didn't fictionalize the story enough. She needs to rewrite this with an eye towards making a compelling story.

This film tells the story of a young woman who gets involved with drug trade in order to raise her two daughters.A good thing about "Free Ride" is that it stays true to the period of 70's, even the font is very 70's. Even though the film is fast paced, the plot is not so well developed. It's not so thrilling, and towards the end it's even confusing. After watching the whole film, and re-watching some critical parts of it, I still don't understand what exactly Christina got for the free ride. I don't understand why the girl going to the concert had to lie to MJ and goes berserk in the car. Maybe the story telling can improve a little, but I think the dirty length of the film is another merit.

"We should have never left Ohio." Christina (Paquin) is a single mother looking to start a new and better life for her two daughters MJ (Liberato) and Shell. They move to Florida and meet up with Sandy who introduces Christina to the world of drug trafficking. What starts off as a way to make some quick money on the side for her kids soon spirals out of control and changes the lives of all involved. I will start by saying that this isn't an original idea but the fact that this one is based on a true story makes it seem fresh. The acting is very good in this and there are just enough different story lines going on to keep you interested and make the movie tense. The mom trying to avoid the law, the tension between the mom and the oldest daughter, and the love interest lines keep you watching and wondering what will happen next. We see Christina go from a great mom to an absentee mom fairly quickly and the same arc for MJ really made me like the movie more then I expected too. Overall, there really isn't much else to say about this, pretty cookie cutter and predictable but it is a true story so that fact alone makes it more interesting. I give it a B.