Stars: Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan, Michael Kelly, Colm Feore, Jason Butler Harner, Amy Adams
Running time: 141 mins
Rating: Four stars

THE story is so amazing that you may find it hard to believe that Changeling, Clint Eastwood’s latest film as a director, is based on true events. Christine Collins, a single mother in 1928 Los Angeles, reports her nine-year-old son, Walter, as missing after returning home from her job as a telephone operator.

Five months later the police, eager for some good publicity to bolster their poor reputation, reunite her with him – except she says that the boy isn’t her son. The police have her committed to a mental asylum, where she finds many other women who’ve crossed the corrupt LA police department.

There’s been talk that Angelina Jolie should get an Oscar nomination, if not the award itself.

She certainly runs the gamut of emotions from fear for her son’s safety to fear for her own sanity as she’s treated roughly by doctors in the asylum as the police feed the press stories about her being unfit to be a mother.

As a director, Eastwood won’t be hurried, as the two hour-plus running time tells you. But he has plenty to explore and, despite its length, Changeling never drags. Running parallel to Christine Collins’ dilemma is a police investigation that leads to the uncovering of a series of child murders.

John Malkovich’s communityminded preacher offers her hope of salvation as he fights the good fight against the bent cops, rallying round citizens to help her cause under the glare of the press eager for a good story.