Wonderfully versatile

Rating: 9/10 (25 April 2011)

This movie surprised me somewhat. Positively! The movie is set out in America the 1920's. Here we meet Angelina Jolie who plays a single mum, coping with life both as a parent and a successful worker. Destiny wants it, that she looses her son one day - he has disappeared. Now we follow the struggle for the mum to find him again. This turns out to be very difficult indeed. In this movie there are different side-stories. It deals with six different themes. 1) The struggle with the corrupt LAPD in finding her son. 2) The inhumane treatment of women in the psychiatric wards in those days. 3) The story of a serial-killer, and the way he abuses his victims. 4) The story of the people wanting to help the single mum in her struggle with the injustice. 5) The situation at her work, that is presented very low-key and subtle, thus giving the audience an impression of genuine and honest storytelling. 6) Last but not least coping with the loss of a child. All these side-stories are masterly pasted into this movie with elegance and intelligence. Eastwood is really a master in connecting the story so it seems, and is, very reflective in terms of abstraction layers. We also saw that in his fantastic and epic war duology - 'Flags of our Fathers' and 'Letters from Iwo Jima'. This movie, however, is not to compare with these other two movies though.
I can just say that you should watch this movie!