By Christine Westwood
Boyd Holbrook (Gone Girl, The Skeleton Twins) and Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men, Girl Interrupted, Top of the Lake) star in the gripping if flawed two-hander The Free World by first time feature film writer and director Jason Lew (writer of Gus Van Sant’s Restless). The film premiered at Sundance and Lew held a Q&A as well as taking time out after the screening to talk to FilmInk about casting, and aiming for emotional honesty in his story.
“I started out as an actor ten years ago. This was my first film as a director, so I didn’t know what all the lights were called, and I think I said at one point ‘let’s punch in for a wide’ which is absolutely not correct! But I know about performance, I know how hard it is, how it feels, what goes into it, so most of the time I was right there with my actors. I had an acting bible which covered every scene and every character, just lists of what they want, why they can’t get it, just acting nerd stuff, and got them to study that the day before each shoot. They were already working at such a high level so a lot of it was just about reminding them of their relationships, especially with Boyd, I would remind him of his relationship to women, to open spaces, my job was just to shepherd them. But the chemistry on set was real.”
Boyd plays ex-con Mo who is working in a dog pound, his first job after being released from jail. Moss is Doris, trying to escape an abusive marriage, with fatal results. Their paths cross and the story follows their deepening relationship through incredibly raw and intimate scenes. They are two wounded people who have been deeply hurt by life and each in their own ways imprisoned.
At one level the story is an essay on how hard it is to break free even when circumstances have led to unfair incarceration. When Doris takes refuge in Mo’s tiny, bare apartment, and she can’t go outside for fear of being seen, there is another confine. The couple’s attempt to make a break for it is heart stopping, not least because of how deeply we have been drawn in to their fear and tension. The odds are stacked against them and they become a metaphor for how society deals with its victims and wounded.
“It horrifies and fascinates me, the blind faith we have to put in our justice system,” says Lew. “I have an enormous amount of respect for law enforcement, but you have to kind of block out that the same person who forgets to buy shampoo at the supermarket is deciding on the fate of kids’ lives. There’s human error and the price of that horrifies me. It’s not a prison movie necessarily, it’s more about the prisons we make for ourselves and find ourselves in.”
The visuals are lucid and in high key colour, the two characters are attractive, Moss is vivid in her girlish clothes and uncensored face. The performances are courageous and stripped back to naked vulnerability. The film has so much heart it’s a pity that sometimes the pacing, camera work and the story line have uneven patches. Hopefully this is an issue of Lew’s relative inexperience and the strength of theme and his commitment will make him a filmmaker to watch.
Certainly, there was a lot of warmth from the Sundance audience. One filmmaker stood up to tell Lew, “Your lens is so empathetic towards the humanity of the characters, there were no false notes. Thank you for your sincerity and honesty, for trying to improve human consciousness.”
Lew responded, “With this film I hope you can see even one moment that you recognise, where you say, ‘Me too!’ It’s in our most isolated moments when we feel that recognition, and realise someone else had that experience. That’s the reason I look at paintings or read books.
“I like to tell stories about people who don’t normally have their stories told,” Lew told FilmInk. “I’m bi-racial so I have a lot of questions about fitting in. I grew up in Maine and moved to New York. I’m Chinese Caucasian, sort of between two worlds, I guess that gives me empathy for outsiders. The buzz for me is taking really challenging material and trying to make it entertaining and performance-driven.”
In the movie, there is an interesting layer added as we discover Mo converted to Islam while in prison. His faith is depicted as a positive influence in Mo’s ritual and humility of prayer. It’s impactful to see the positive use of any faith, especially Islam, in the current climate. At the after-screening Q&A, a Muslim member of the audience stood up to thank Lew for the spiritual aspect in the film.
“It’s a travesty you have to thank me for that,” Lew replies. “We weren’t trying to make a political statement, but one would be bothered if it was a catholic faith or something. Any faith when practiced peacefully, it’s beautiful and something, tragically, we don’t see in American cinema. On one level we chose that faith to isolate the character, make him stand out. Also, I’m fascinated with the conversion that happens in prisons, how strong that call must be to convert in a place that’s so tribal and where you stay with your own and you’re separated out by race as you’re going in.”
Without giving too much away, Lew describes the challenge of making decisions about the film’s ending. “I never wanted it to be this mystic bummer where he just dies at the end and we just spent an hour and half falling in love with somebody then – dead. I don’t respond to that kind of filmmaking. I’m inspired by stories in Greek mythology where there is a descent into the dark to return to the light. I discovered that world when I read about Orpheus and Persephone. That’s the kind of story I respond to. I’m working on a few things at the moment, waiting until something really connects, something deep.”
As a last word, Lew spoke of the practical challenges of filming The Free World.
“We had 23 shooting days in Louisiana. It was a beautiful place but so hot, 125 degrees the whole time. The soles of Boyd’s shoes literally melted off. Oh, and working with dogs – never again!”
The Free World is available on DVD and digital from March 23, 2018
