Handsomely produced, prestigious, yet excessively didactic drama...Conspiracy 101

Rating: 6/10 (8 May 2010)

True Crime Story out of 1928 Los Angeles concerns working single mother who arrives home one night to discover her young son missing from the house; her heartbreaking story of loss becomes front page news, and when the L.A. police ceremoniously locate the boy and bring him back to her some five months later--she's certain it isn't him. Screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski really stacks the deck against our heroine, with only a Presbyterian minister (and the audience) on her side. With so many villains (corrupt, uncaring, and unfeeling) peopling the cast, one is apt to feel as beaten down as Angelina Jolie's Christine Collins. Producer-director Clint Eastwood feels for her but spares us none of the horrors of her nightmare, which dragged on for years, culminating in two different legal trials (which appear to be happening at the same time). Jolie's acting is finely measured, well-considered, and emotionally felt, however the supporting performances are wildly uneven. From John Malkovich's super-superior Reverend Briegleb to Jeffrey Donovan's maddeningly condescending police chief, everyone seems to have stepped out of an old horror flick. Eastwood isn't subtle--nor does his final edit exhibit brevity--but he knows how to pack a punch when it's called for, and his film has many powerful moments. It certainly looks good, which helps compensate for the over-length, and it's satisfying to a certain degree...yet the picture isn't a rich, engrossing entertainment. It is too intent on painting everyone involved as either completely good or wholly and inexplicably evil. **1/2 from ****