Haunting...

Rating: 10/10 (2 May 2009)

This one caught me completely by surprise. I can vouch for the fact that for a woman to lose a child, even in the course of as natural an act as childbirth (it happened to my mother), can be devastating (and the kind of thing that can haunt her for the rest of her natural life). To lose a child the way the real Ms. Collins did is even worse. Ask John Walsh. I'd never heard of "the chicken coop murders" before. It's amazing to think that something of such magnitude might've been consigned to the fires of forgetfulness if not for a writer happening across a pile of discarded paperwork... Even more amazing was the way Ms. Collins, so ably played by Angelina Jolie, soldiered on. Women are often capable of a kind of strength men can't match. (Just today, I saw my wife stand in line FOR SIX HOURS, in triple-digit heat, at a local church in the hopes of getting some dental work done... only to be turned away at literally the last moment. How she didn't break down is beyond me. Literally.) CHANGELING is a left hook to the chin that you just don't see coming: it undoes dental work, and it's the kind of movie you don't forget easily.