The true, true story

Rating: 9/10 (20 February 2009)

Two captivating true stories converge to create a rich, epic drama. You have the legendary, chilling account of the "chicken coup murders" which would make a great film on it's own, but takes more of a backseat to the virtually unknown story of the Christine Collins case. Screenwriter Straczynski literally unearthed the details of her ordeal from the LAPD archives right before they were about to burn everything. He spent years doing extensive research on the case so he could be sure it would be a 'true story' and not just 'based on a true story.' It paid off. The true story is far better, and crazier, than any fictionalization would have been. I'm not a big Eastwood fan, but I love what he did with this film. In my opinion, this is an outright horror movie. I'm sure it's a lot scarier than the Friday the 13th remake. I also really liked the way he handled the period aspects. He made 1920s and 30s Los Angeles into a vivid world all its own. I loved how new characters keep popping up as the movie goes along, and each one of them is performed brilliantly. What begins as a simple little story goes far and wide with several stops at very unexpected places along the way.