A good Eastwood movie again with Angelina Jolie changing out of lots of period piece clothing. She's good but an Oscar worthy performance? Not too sure about that, but she is great in this movie. It is based upon true events which took place in Southern California just prior to the Great Depression. Jolie stars as Christine Collins, a single working mother, who loses her nine year old son Walter. She reports the incident to the LAPD who find another boy 5 months later in Illinois who claims to be Walter Collins. The police return the boy to his "mother", but Christine Collins swears this is not her son. In turn the police department turns on her and calls her a lunatic.
When Collins seeks help from a supportive preacher Reverend Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich), that's when things start to turn ugly for the single mom. She verbally and psychologically abused by a terrible police captain, played well by Jeffrey Donovan, and is made to seem like an unfit mother. In fact, she is actually placed in an asylum just for claiming this is not her boy. In the meantime, another investigation is being conducted for missing children and the plot starts to thicken.
This is one historical movie that Eastwood has done which actually works. Probably because of psychological element and the fact that everyone is perfectly cast in this film. The actual abductor Gordon Northcutt, is portrayed wonderfully by Jason Harner and you really hate the bastard. Well paced and scary because it was all true and took place 30 miles from Los Angeles, this is a good movie and a good story which translated well to the screen. Just Queue It!
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