Following up her Oscar-winning turn in Still Alice, Julianne Moore is doing it tough again in Freeheld. This time it's cancer rather than early-onset Alzheimer’s that her character, a New Jersey police ’tec, is confronted with, but the consequences are no less severe. Take a look at the film’s new trailer to see what’s at stake.
Moore’s isn’t the only Oscar pedigree at work on this drama. Freeheld is based on Cynthia Wade’s 2007 Oscar-winning short documentary of the same name. Both films tell the true-life story of police officer Laurel Hester (Moore), whose world was shattered when she became terminally ill. Prevented from leaving her pension to her partner, mechanic Stacie Andree (Ellen Page), she enlists the support and help of equality activist Steven Goldstein (Steve Carell, a late stand-in for Zach Galifianakis) and an initially disapproving friend at the department, Dane Wells (Michael Shannon), and sets about fighting for her right against egregious legal bureaucracy.
**Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist **director Peter Sollett called the shots on this. He worked from a script by Ron Nyswaner, who wrote Philadelphia, a film whose defiant spirit Freeheld clearly evokes.
Moore is next appearing as more than slightly sinister District 13 leader Alma Coin in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, before joining Ethan Hawke for something lighter in Rebecca Miller’s upcoming rom-com **Maggie’s Plan. Freeheld gets its UK release in October.