Changeling- Strong 1920s LAPD Corruption Setting ***1/2

Rating: 9/10 (24 February 2009)

Lengthy but worthwhile Clint Eastwood film dealing with police corruption in Los Angeles in the late 1920s.
Angelina Jolie gives a worthy performance as the mother of a kidnapped boy, victimized by the police when she refuses to accept the child they find and claim is hers as her own son. This shows and leads to a massive cover-up of the LAPD. When the police chief commits Mrs. Collins (Jolie) to an asylum for refusing to play ball with them, we see the corruption not only of the police department but the asylums of Los Angeles during this period. I thought that I was going back to Olivia De Havilland's "The Snake Pit" in 1948.
The film is well directed as usual by Clint Eastwood. Great how she shows the simultaneous trials of the man accused of killing the son of Mrs. Collins while the LAPD heads are tried for what they did to Mrs. Collins. Getting through that asylum was almost like "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
The main problem with the film is that it is too long. It could have ended at least 20 minutes to one half hour before.