Very good

Rating: 8/10 (2 November 2008)

I have to say, I'm shocked at the mediocre critical reaction to this film. It's the kind of perfectly good, middlebrow flick that they usually bend over backward to praise. Any other year, this would be the frontrunner for Best Picture. Personally, I'm never that impressed with the usual films that make newspaper critics' top ten lists. Sometimes I downright dislike them. This isn't one I disliked. I rather did like it. In fact, it's my favorite Eastwood-directed film since Mystic River. I think it's a lot less flawed than Million Dollar Baby, and a lot less lifeless than his two WWII films from a couple years back. Angelina Jolie plays a single mother in 1928 Los Angeles. One day, when she is forced to work overtime, her nine year old son disappears. After a five month investigation, the police find and return her son – only it's not her son. In fact, it's another boy who looks somewhat similar, but he's three inches shorter and circumcized. Most of the film follows Jolie's desperate and futile attempts to fight the police force, who refuse to accept her story. The film is based on a true story, one that dragged out for quite a while. I think a lot of critics felt that the film is poorly paced because of this, but I thought screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski did an admirable job of keeping it moving. Jolie is fantastic. I also very much liked Jeffrey Donovan as the corrupt police captain. On the other hand, I thought Jason Butler Harner overplayed his role. The thing that Eastwood always excels at is the look of his films, and everything here, from cinematography to costumes to production design, is perfect.