CHANGELING (Rated R)

Like most Hollywood talent, Angelina Jolie has had her share of frivolous film work, but any notion that she is anything but a serious, dedicated actor should be easily dispelled by her riveting performance in “Changeling.”

Under the expert direction of Clint Eastwood, Jolie so fully owns the role of a spirited woman refusing to submit to the corrupt culture of Los Angeles 80 years ago that it is easy to feel her emotional pain, as well as to admire her resolve to fight evil. She manages the feat of being equally tough and vulnerable without so much as a hint of trite, overbearing sentimentality.

Based on a disturbing factual story long forgotten, “Changeling,” though obviously dramatized for the screen, is one of the most compelling works in the pantheon of films that unveil the sleaze and corruption of early twentieth century Los Angeles.

Though centered on the type of corrupt, amoral behavior found in “Chinatown” and “L.A. Confidential,” the emotional and provocative drama of “Changeling” digs into the murky world of mistreatment of women, particularly those who dared to challenge the establishment.

Jolie’s single mother Christine Collins lives in the tidy, working-class suburb of Lincoln Heights with her 9-year-old son Walter (Gattlin Griffiths). By day, she works as a supervisor at the local phone company.

On a sunny Saturday in March 1928, Christine is asked to fill in for a sick colleague, and when returning late in the afternoon discovers Walter is missing. An exhaustive and fruitless search ensues, but Walter has disappeared without a trace.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Police Department seems hardly moved to fully investigate, but the police are only too eager to bask in a publicity coup of reuniting mother and child five months later. Police Captain J.J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) joins Christine at the train station to meet the missing boy who had been found in Illinois.

The reunion at Union Station turns out not to be what was expected. Though having a passing resemblance to Walter, the boy is not Christine’s son, a fact that she impresses upon Captain Jones and LAPD Police Chief Davis (Colm Feore). Dazed by the swirl of cops, reporters, photographers and her own conflicted emotions, Christine is persuaded by the devious Captain Jones to take the boy home, if only on a trial basis. In her heart and mind, she knows the boy is not Walter, particularly since he’s about 3 inches shorter.

Pestering the authorities to keep searching, Christine runs into downright hostility from the corrupt LAPD. The increasingly abusive Captain Jones goes so far as to slander her as a delusional and unfit mother. Facing an onslaught of mistreatment at the hands of corrupt cops, Christine finds an ally in Rev. Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich), a community activist who rails against the LAPD from his pulpit and radio show. One of the shocking elements of this story is that Christine, continuing to get under the skin of Captain Jones, finds herself committed forcibly to the county psychopathic ward as a patient.

Inside the psychiatric ward, it turns out that other women have been committed without a warrant or any legal due process. Fortunately, the good reverend manages to get her released from custody and enlists the help of a prominent attorney to go after the corrupt cops in dramatic City Hall hearings.

Meanwhile, on an almost parallel track, one honest cop, Detective Ybarra (Michael Kelly), is hot on the trail of a serial killer of young boys, which ostensibly has a connection with Walter’s disappearance. Eventually, the bodies of many kids are discovered on an isolated chicken ranch in Riverside County.

With the arrest of psychotic child killer Gordon Northcott (Jason Butler Harner, playing the part to a creepy extreme), there’s the very odd intersection of Christine’s desire to learn the truth bumping up against the sick mind of a sociopath playing a twisted cat-and-mouse game. Right up to the time of his execution by hanging, Northcott tormented Christine by not confirming his involvement in Walter’s vanishing act.

Compelling and mesmerizing, “Changeling” is a serious bit of entertainment that revels in the power of a good story and even better performances. Some might say Angelina Jolie is too glamorous for the part of an ordinary working woman, but she delivers real conviction as the distraught mother willing to fight back. It’s impossible not to be moved by her plight. Once again, Clint Eastwood proves that he knows what he’s doing behind the camera, delivering a spellbinding experience.

DVD RELEASE UPDATE

If the spirit of Halloween lasts beyond Election Day, then the followup to the original cult classic horror film should be welcomed on its DVD release.

“Return to Sleepaway Camp” resurrects a gruesome new installment picking up two decades later at rustic Camp Manabe, where it is summer as usual until a series of freak accidents begin to mysteriously plague the campers and staff. As corpses begin piling up, memories of a grisly bloodbath at nearby Camp Arawak a few decades earlier flash through everyone’s mind.

Why do these horror films so often occur at camp? I won’t even pitch a tent in the woods. Yet, teens flock to this kind of movie, regardless of its quality, which appears to be seriously lacking in “Return to Sleepaway Camp.”

As a bit of trivia, it should be noted that this is Isaac Hayes last feature film.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

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