Changeling (2008)

In 1928 Los Angeles, a single mother (Angelina Jolie), who works as a supervisor for the phone company, returns home from work to find her nine year old son (Gattlin Griffith) is missing. Several months later, a boy (Devon Conti) is returned to her claiming to be her son which she denies. What follows is a devastating narrative of police corruption, the disempowerment of women, false incarcerations and child murders. Based on the true story of the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders and directed by Clint Eastwood. The film takes artistic license but it is for the most part accurate to the facts of the disappearance of Walter Collins and the subsequent ordeal suffered by his mother Christine Collins (Jolie). In its own way, it's as much a horror film as SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. But the horror comes from a society that doesn't listen to women, brushing them off as hysterical and emotional and shoving them aside rather than listening to their truth. The horror comes from the power of a corrupt political system that denies citizens their rights and allows police to destroy lives at a whim. Jolie gives a career best performance here. There's is nothing more traumatic than losing a child and Jolie makes us privy to the rollercoaster of emotions running through her and her refusal to bow down. With John Malkovich, Colm Feore, Jeffrey Donovan, Jason Butler Harner, Amy Ryan and Denis O'Hare.