Very powerful tale of crushing sorrow and horror, intense and not for the faint of heart

Rating: 8/10 (9 November 2008)

Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) lives in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1928. Her husband took off long ago and left her the sole caretaker of her nine year old son, Walter. To make ends meet, Christine works long hours as a supervisor for a local telephone company, where she is respected as a very hard-working employee. One Saturday, as she was planning to take Walter to the motion picture theater, she is asked to fill in for an emergency situation at work. Making a promise to Walter that they will shift their plans to Sunday, Christine has no choice but to leave the young boy at home alone, although neighbors will check in on him every couple of hours. However, after work, Christine comes home to an empty house. Walter has vanished. When she contacts the police, they are singularly unhelpful and uncaring, surprisingly. But, after several months of searching, the police notify Christine that Walter has been found in Illinois and will be returning on the train. It is categorically untrue, as Christine sees immediately that the young boy stepping off the train is not her son. Yet, the police ask her to smile for the cameras and take this lad home and study him, for they tell her young children can change quite dramatically. Reluctantly, Christine does so. But, it soon becomes crystal clear that this boy is not hers, as he is three inches shorter, among other anatomical differences. Frustrated and upset, Christine continues to tell the police that a mistake has been made and she urges them to find her son and this new boy's relatives. Unbelievably, the police declare her to be "crazy" and they escort her to the local mental hospital for an indefinite stay. Only one person seems to be on her side, the local and powerful Presbyterian minister (John Malkovich) and he works tirelessly to help. Meanwhile, at a broken-down ranch near the city, police find a young boy from Canada who has enormous secrets to tell, all of them horrific. Can these secrets offer clues to Walter's whereabouts? This is a very powerful story of immense injustice, horror and sorrow. It clearly shows that evil walks among us, no matter what time period we find ourselves in. As the principal actor, Jolie is sensational, for she is heartbreakingly genuine as the mother who not only loses her son and her freedom but is a witness to unspeakable horror as well. Malkovich, too, is excellent as the combative and relentless man of the cloth. All of the other actors, although unknown, give extremely fine performances, too, especially the man who plays the police captain and the one who portrays the insane rancher-serial killer. As for the recreation of 1920's Los Angeles, through sets, costumes, script, and photography, is is very well done and Eastwood's direction is secure and forceful, despite the film's length of two and a half hours. Nevertheless, if you can not handle a story that will haunt you for days, due to its extremely horrific nature, don't see this one. Although it is a fine, fine piece of cinema, it is a most difficult watch indeed.