R Bruce Hudson 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.

SnoopyStyle 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.

Gordon-11 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.

Larry Silverstein I would say the viewer's opinion on this film could well rest on how much they accept the protagonist's rationalizations of her actions here. I'm sorry, but I couldn't buy into it.Based on a true story, set in 1977, Anna Paquin is certainly convincing as the sexy Christina, forced to flee an abusive relationship with her two daughters from Ohio to Florida. The promising young actress Liana Liberato (Trust) portrays Chrisitna's older daughter MJ, while Ava Acres plays Shell, the youngest.In Florida, they're taken in by Christina's friend Sandy (Drea de Matteo) (they were former go-go dancers together in Ohio), who eventually introduces Christina to the world of illegal marijuana trafficking off the coast of the state. Sandy's cohorts in the trade seem readily accepting of Christina and soon she's quite involved in the smuggling business.However, as she gets deeper and deeper into the trafficking her decisions regarding the care of her daughters become poorer and poorer. This will lead to dangerous, dramatic, and possibly tragic consequences down the road.At the very end of the movie, we learn that the film's writer and director Shana Betz, was actually the younger daughter Shell in the film. There's brief clips as well of the real "Christina" giving her reasons and rationalizations for her actions. Maybe I'm being the "moral police " here, but I just can't buy into involving your children in the drug trade and putting them at risk as well.All in all, I found the film presented a fairly absorbing presentation and there was a decent natural realism to it all, as well as some fine performances. The fact that I was quite bothered by the premise cut my rating down to average.