I am reminded that we are all slaves in this world, with Christ, but the true victory is freedom in Christ Jesus.

"Freedom" is about an important subject - the Underground Railroad, which helped thousands of slaves escape from the American South to freedom in Canada. However, it's also about another subject - it traces the story of John Newton, the writer of the famous hymn "Amazing Grace," and it provides some background to the story of his religious conversion after his start as a slaveship captain. The story begins with the escape of a slave family from a Virginia plantation, and follows them on their arduous and dangerous journey north. But that story is chopped up by interspersing the Newton story, with the two stories being somewhat awkwardly held together by a Bible that Newton supposedly gave to a young boy he delivered into slavery in Charleston and that gets passed down eventually to his grandson (played by Cuba Gooding, Jr.) - who is the one leading his family to freedom more than a hundred years later. The problem with telling the story this way is that neither the story of the Underground Railroad or the story of Newton's conversion is told in the depth that it probably deserves - especially given that the movie is only about 90 minutes in length and so doesn't have a great deal of time to tell even one of the stories had it focused on just one) and so both stories are somewhat choppy.So the blending of the stories is, as I said, awkward. At times this has a very heavy religious tone with a lot of religious themes (forgiveness, grace, heaven, etc.) That's appropriate in that black slaves really were inspired by Christian faith and that shouldn't be denied, but it seemed a bit too forced at times. There are a lot of hymns and spirituals used in this movie - to the point at which it sometimes seemed as if this was trying to be a musical of some sort. The emphasis on hymns led to at least one anachronism in the movie. With some knowledge of Christian hymnody I was puzzled by the fact that Newton's fiance was singing "It Is Well With My Soul" in church in 1748. That didn't seem right to me, so I quickly researched and, indeed, discovered that the hymn wasn't written until 1876. Somebody really should have checked that out. With so many songs there may have been other musical anachronisms, but that's the one that leaped out at me. I also thought the ending - while perhaps heartwarming - was a bit too far-fetched to be believable.For all that, I liked the movie. It was very watchable and, as I said, it deals with important topics. It makes the point early on of slavery's brutality as a slave that helped the family escape is brutally beaten while the other slaves are forced to watch. This seems - from the closing captions - to be an attempt to link the Underground Railroad and the abolitionist movement of the 19th century with the problem of modern day slavery of various kinds. Those captions note that there are 29 million people (I'm not sure where that number came from, and I've actually seen estimates of close to 50 million) held in various kinds of slavery in the world today and encourages viewers to help eradicate it. By all means we should be doing what we can to achieve that, and if "Freedom" helps to shine some light on that problem, then it's serving a noble purpose. (6/10)

Samuel (Cuba Goodling jr. ) and his family are seeking freedom on the Underground Railroad in 1856. They are aided by Thomas Garrett (Michael Goodwin) and a host of Quakers who don't care that they are breaking the Fugitive Slave Act. A man named Plimpton (William Sadler) has been hired to find and return the family to the Richmond Plantation. Along the way they meet Frederick Douglas (Byron Utley).In a subplot, a century earlier, Samuel's great-grandfather is being brought over as a slave by John Newton (Bernhard Forcher) who would later renounce slave trading and write "Amazing Grace." His conversion is not an accurate representation, which occurred while his ship was en route to Ireland, but this version makes better drama and inspiration.The acting was low key. The performances while solid, were not outstanding. This is an inspiring emotional film about hope and redemption. "Family Approved

There are lots of things to criticize here. Too much overt religion. Slow moving story. The clever idea of paralleling the story of slaves to the story of hymns. Weak plot.But if the story of slavery in America is a huge jigsaw puzzle little understood by today's Americans, then this film has a few jigsaw pieces to consider. For example, we don't learn often enough today about the Underground Railway, and that is a key part of this film. Some of its methods are highlighted here, including the role played by Quakers. There are some heart rending scenes here which will be distasteful to many, but which only scratch the surface of the immense cruelty these humans suffered, particularly in the voyage to America.There are some detours here that were distracting and added little to the story. For example the theatrical segment was just so out of place. And the whole flashback in time aspect of the story...well, I think it sounded better on paper than it turned out on the screen.Cuba Gooding had so little dialog here it's almost funny, He's an actor that started out with real promise, but made many poor project choices. His gravelly voice is beginning to be a problem.As a film, this movie is an almost epic failure. Its value lies only in certain images that burn into your mind even more the evils of slavery and what Black men, women AND CHILDREN endured.On a personal note, I was interested in one aspect of this film -- that part of it took place in Woodbridge, Virginia, the area in which I lived my last few years in the state.