Changeling

Changeling definitely falls into the category of "truth is stranger than fiction," because if this wasn't based on a true story, you wouldn't buy it.

A boy is returned to his mother after a five month disappearance, but his mother doesn't recognize him.  Is this, as the police insist, because she is in shock and the ordeal has also had physical manifestations in the boy, or is the mother the victim of a corrupt LAPD looking only to keep its image shining brightly in the public's collective eyes?

The mother, Christine Collins, played by Oscar nominated Angelina Jolie continues to fight the police and their insistence that the case is closed.  Only at the beginning of her and her son's "reunion" does she question whether she might be mistaken.

John Malkovich plays a local reverend who has made it his life's mission to challenge the LAPD and takes up Mrs. Collins's cause.  I'm normally not a fan of Malkovich but he is very good here.

The film is long, but only because it continues to present you with the facts of the case as they happened nearly 80 years ago in California.  It provokes anger at several injustices, sadness for a mother's loss and impotence, and hope that patience and persistence may overcome.

It also forces me to update my top 5 movies of the year: 

1. The Dark Knight

2. Milk

3. Slumdog Millionaire

4. Changeling

5. The Visitor