"Never start a fight. Always finish it."

Rating: 9/10 (9 March 2018)

Films like this, especially when based upon a true story, always manage to infuriate me for the corruption and injustice that exists with entities absolutely resolved to maintain their personal power and control over others. In this case, it's the Los Angeles Police Department that attempts to convince a woman that a young boy that's returned to her after being lost and missing for a number of months is her own son, even when all evidence points to the contrary. How do people like Captain Jones (Jeffrey Donovan), Chief Davis (Colm Feore) and psychiatric doctor Earl Tarr (Peter Gerety) look themselves in the mirror and sleep at night? That they would put this woman Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) through a literal hell on Earth is beyond despicable, and yet they hold positions of authority that one would least likely question as regards an emotionally overwrought woman that these monsters are trying to scam.
I've only seen Angelina Jolie in a couple of other films, but she really established herself in this picture in my view. Her performance was extraordinary, I can only imagine what the real life Mrs. Collins must have felt like during this ordeal. The thing I couldn't understand was why child murderer Northcott (Jason Butler Harner) got a two year prison sentence before being executed. Like all cowards, he went out a lot like Jimmy Cagney did in "Angels With Dirty Faces", but in Cagney's case, he was doing it for his buddy Pat O'Brien, so one doesn't have the same reservations about his getting the death penalty. Northcott's was more humane than he afforded the kids he victimized.
So Clint Eastwood as director scores another stunning film to his repertoire, amid a string of winners that included "Mystic River", "Million Dollar Baby" and "Gran Torino". This one didn't receive the same level of recognition, but don't let that deter you from seeing the picture. It's a well told story that will make your blood boil, and though it doesn't have an entirely happy ending, it may help you see victims of the justice system in an entirely new light.