.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

Los Angeles in the 1920's must have been a terrible place to live. Corruption, murder and crime ran rampant. And that was just within the Los Angeles Police Department.

The sleaze of the LAPD is the backdrop for Clint Eastwood's new Angelina Jolie period piece, Changeling, a true story about Christine Collins (Jolie), a woman of incredible strength and resolve that fights the system and the dishonesty of the LAPD after her son disappears and is replaced months later by a boy that the Police claim to be her child.

It all begins in 1928. We are introduced to single mother Christine who lives with her son Walter Collins who is unfortunately the victim of a mother trying to juggle the demands of her job with the responsibility of tending to her kin.

While covering a shift at work, her son disappears and her relationship with various members of the LAPD begins. Already known for their rampant ineptitude and corruption, the LAPD is in desperate need of a facelift and they see opportunity in Ms. Collins plight as they arrange and fabricate the return of a child that is clearly not Walter.

In a story so unbelievable, Christine Collins undergoes incredible hardship as she continues the fight for the search for her son while combating the ego of one Captain J.J. Jones (played by Jeffrey Donovan). Even as Christine clearly proves it is not her son based on height (her child was taller) and physical features (her son was not circumcised), the media and the people of Los Angeles were manipulated into believing that Christine was ungrateful and delusional.

Years would pass and the only person who championed Christine's cause was Reverend Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich) who used his live radio broadcast to attract and educate listeners on the illegal activities of the LAPD. His actions were formidable and eventually invaluable, but they were not enough to keep Christine from being ridiculed by the department and thrown into a sanitarium where her mental health was severely questioned.

Through the cover up, Eastwood keeps the camera on Jolie's Christine and she does an incredible job of portraying a woman fighting for justice in a world where rules don't apply and where women are expected to be subservient. Jolie's Christine should easily nab her nominations once the silly award season starts in another month.

The film does change tone a bit when we learn of a serial killer that may or may not be responsible for Walter's disappearance. As it morphs from a strong and emotionally taxing drama and takes the forked road down a path that gets involved in the killer's subsequent trial, the movie does begin to feel like the train is screeching off the tracks a bit, but Eastwood does his best to give us the full spectrum of this incredible woman's ordeal.

This makes Changeling one of the best films of the year - if not the best so far. It will draw you into 1920's Western America and if you don't feel the pain and the frustration of the main character than you've either never had kids of your own or you simply don't have a heart.