The critics are nuts. This film is outstanding.

Rating: 10/10 (17 November 2008)

When my wife and I first heard that another Eastwood film was coming out, we planned to see it. Then we read unremitting negative comments by the critics, so we hesitated. We decided to see the film anyway because we have liked everything Eastwood has directed, and we knew that some of the cast were fine actors. Wow, are we glad we stuck with our first instinct. The film is excellent.
The critics panned the script, by J. Michael Straczynski. One critic mentioned that Straz wrote Babylon 5 and suggested that was reason enough to expect this script to be bad. In fact, Babylon 5 was very good, and so is the script for this movie. Critics complained about Eastwood's directing, but the directing was fine. Some of the critics complained about the acting, but in fact the acting is flawless. My general impression of critics has been strongly reinforced: they typically are shallow and self-important windbags trying to show off how smart and sophisticated they are. They should be ignored.
The story itself is sad, uplifting, disturbing, and bittersweet all at the same time. It is, sad to say, a true story.
The characters come across as real people, as is typical for Eastwood's films. Every single actor delivers exactly the right performance for the role being played. Indeed, the acting is the best part of this movie, though I do not mean to diminish any other aspect of the film by saying that. There are several children in the film who have significant parts, often with lines that must convey genuine emotions of fear or remorse. Not easy stuff for a kid to get right, yet all of them do their jobs very well. That is partly a tribute to Eastwood's directing, showing his ability to elicit strong performances from his actors.
There is no point listing every actor here and praising their performances one by one. They were all outstanding. I will single out Angelina Jolie for special mention, though. She is the main character, and her performance is simply superb. Her range of emotions is truly remarkable. What a fine actress she is.