According to that ol’ cliche, being flat-out broke on your butt with the world caving in on you is supposed to be a highly liberating experience; a sort of existential crisis overload that will wash away life’s toxins and let the victim emerge, reborn and pure. It’s nonsense, of course, as the hapless victim in director Moh Azima’s not-quite-funny “Trapped In Freedom” quickly finds out. The brittle laughter rings hollow as each pillar of his world collapses; each outburst claiming that “This is the best day of my life!” sounds a little bit more manic than the last. Unable or unwilling to be either a totally cruel black comedy or a grim study of a bleak life in crisis, “Trapped in Freedom” tries to have it both ways. Like being a little bit pregnant, this just doesn’t work. The result is a film that is itself trapped in its own indecision.
