Had we not seen "Crash" last year, "Freedomland" might have seemed like a timely and intriguing story of racial tensions boiling over. Unfortunately, though, we have seen "Crash" and, as a result, "Freedomland" seems hysterical and warmed-over in comparison. The movie has all of the sizzle of "Crash" but none of the steak.

The fault lies squarely on the shoulders of director Joe Roth. He is working from solid source material: The script is by Richard Price, cinema's reigning king of urban decay, who also wrote the rollicking and provocative novel on which the film is based. He's working with a talented cast, which, along with stars Samuel L. Jackson ("The Man") and Julianne Moore ("The Forgotten"), also includes invaluable supporting performers like William Forsythe and Phillip Bosco.

Behind the camera, his team, including editor Nick Moore and costume designer Ann Roth, is top of the line. As a result, it is even more disturbing to see what lengths Roth goes to botch a film that, on paper, would seem like a can't-miss.

The problem with Roth, very simply, is that he is not a director: He's a studio head who dabbles in filmmaking. There isn't anything wrong, I suppose, with an executive moving down from his office every now and then to direct a movie, if he so chooses. It's his money. But to take on a project as big and ambitious as "Freedomland" when your previous films have included "Revenge of the Nerds II" and "Christmas with the Kranks" seems outright irresponsible. Price tackles important issues in both the novel and the script, and what the film really needed was a serious, competent director to bring them home. Roth is not that kind of filmmaker.

The plot: Brenda Martin (Moore) stumbles into a hospital, bruised and bleeding. She says she was carjacked in a predominantly black neighborhood in the fictional city of Ganton, N.J., (read: Newark). The detective assigned to the case, Lorenzo Council (Jackson), senses that she is holding something back from him. He's right — her son was in the back of the car, and now he's out there somewhere.

The story plays out as both a standard thriller (the search for the missing boy) and a social commentary, as neighborhood racial tensions boil over as legions of Caucasian cops descend on the neighborhood, all in the search of a little boy who we start to doubt even ever existed.

Price's novel managed to balance both of these stories, but the film is too unfocused to really do justice to Price's ideas. Even at two hours, the movie feels like a bare bones version of the book. Characters that were powerful in the novel (especially Brenda's tough cop brother, played by Ron Eldard, who was a tortured soul in the book, but comes off as a garden variety hot head in the film) are neutered on film.

Whereas Price seemed to have an insider's knowledge of Jersey neighborhood politics, Roth seems to be working in an unfamiliar world. Even though Price did write the script, the words that come out of characters mouths never quite sound right: There doesn't seem to be any confidence in any of the performances. Jackson and Moore seem like they were misdirected: They don't hit the right notes as Brenda and Lorenzo. They seem calm when they should be breaking down, and they are breaking down when they should be calm. It is all very odd.

Again, I come back to Roth. I have no idea what movie he thought he was making. Is it a standard thriller? Is it an intricate sociology study, like "Crash"? Or is it a mixture of the two, like "Mystic River"? Only Roth knows, and he's not telling. What a waste.

Rating: 1 out of 5