BEFORE: Looking for a real benchmark film for big movie #800 - something like this with a big-name star and a big-name director (Clint Eastwood) will hopefully fit the bill. Linking from last night, John Goodman was in "The Big Lebowski" with Steve Buscemi, who was in "Con Air" with John Malkovich, who's in this one - I wish I'd known that before, I would have scheduled this closer to "Color Me Kubrick" and "The Great Buck Howard".
THE PLOT: A grief-stricken mother takes on the LAPD to her own detriment when it stubbornly tries to pass off an obvious impostor as her missing child, while also refusing to give up hope that she will find him one day.
AFTER: Wow, Angelina can ACT, and I don't say that often. I was glad to find out that she was Oscar-nominated for this, I think she really deserved it. She's given a lot to work with, a very troubing situation after her character's son disappears, and the police experts return a child who fits her son's description, but who she comes to believe is not him.
It's complicated, because children at that age grow rapidly, so at first it seems possible that his look might have just changed in his absence - but it also seems that the police might have been more interested in closing the case, as opposed to SOLVING the case. The film is set in 1928, before DNA testing, facial recognition software, voice-printing or most other modern identification techniques. Also, this was before missing children became a national concern, so most mothers at that time wouldn't think to have their children fingerprinted, or perhaps even warn them about "stranger danger".
There's a lot of meat to this plot, as it turns into a showdown between a mother and the entire LAPD, touching on gender issues, police corruption, and mental health issues, as well as the missing children epidemic. Without giving too much away, this could have easily fit into my law/trial chain, of course I wouldn't have known that without watching it.
My reward to myself for hitting movie #800? A few hours of "Grand Theft Auto", which I haven't played in months. Cheers!
Starring Angelina Jolie (last seen in "Mr & Mrs. Smith"), Michael Kelly, Amy Ryan (last seen in "Dan in Real Life"), Jeffrey Donovan (from the TV show "Burn Notice", but really channeling Guy Pearce in "L.A. Confidential" here), Colm Feore, and Peter Gerety (last seen in "Miracle on 34th St.)
RATING: 7 out of 10 Model T's.
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