The movie is set in Los Angeles in the 1920's. Jolie's son is kidnapped while she is at work. The corrupt LAPD return a child to her claiming it is her son. She refuses to accept the boy as her son. The Police throw her into and Insane Asylum for her troubles judging her to be an unfit, delusional mother. The boy turns out to be a runaway looking for a free ticket to California. He just happens to resemble her son. The Police just want to close the case.
The movie is based on the true story of the Wineville Chicken Coup Murders where dozens of young boys disappeared, were kiled and buried on a chicken farm near Los Angeles in a town called Wineville in the late 1920's. Although there has never been any proof that Jolie's character's son was killed in these gruesome killings all evidence points that way.
In the film John Malkovich plays a crusading Minister demanding changes in the corrupt LAPD. He champions Jolie's cause, obtains legal help and frees her from the brutal asylum.
Eastwood is brilliant in his direction of this film. The entire film has a sombre, almost morose air to it. You feel sympathy for Jolie and long for the return of her son. Los Angeles is not the place that we consider it to be today. It's a new City where people are flooding in from across the Country in the years coming up to the Great Depression. All were looking to make a better life. Drifters and abandonned children were sadly common. Chaos were common. It was the kind of place where people could go missing. Telephones were new and communication was poor.
Don't miss this one. It will leave you scrambling for the keys of your keyboard and the Google search engine trying to learn more about the Wineville Chicken Coup Murders and the Murderer who was hung for his despicable acts.
It's a sad movie but very entertaining. Four and a 1/2 buckets of popcorn out of five. Don't wait for the DVD.
