directed by Clint Eastwood
written by J. Michael Straczynski
starring Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan, Amy Ryan, Michael Kelly, Gattlin Griffith, Riki Lindhome, Jason Butler Harner, Eddie Alderson, Geoffrey Pierson, Devon Conti, Colm Feore.
In Los Angeles, 1928, A mother’s relentless search for her missing son leads to the uncovering of filthy institutional secrets in this dynamic, deeply affective film that ought to be considered on several levels once Acadamy Award nominations are announced in January.
Christine Collins (Jolie) works as a manager for the phone company and takes care of her only son Walter (Griffith). One morning she leaves Walter at home alone promising to return before sundown. When she arrives back home Walter is missing leaving Christine naturally heartbroken and frantic. Several months later a boy is located and amidst tremendous fanfare designed strategically to provide a positive image for the LAPD, he is brought to her. The crowd is abuzz and everyone is satisfied now that the case has for all appearances been solved. The boy gives his name as Walter Collins but Christine does not recognize him. She informs the police who have gathered for the occasion but they insist that they have reunited her with her son and that he has changed in the five minutes he has been missing. Christine capitulates and allows herself to be photographed with the boy.
The film focuses its attention on the corruption of the police force and the draconian measures acted out by mental health facilities. Because she is such a thorn in the police’s side they have her locked away in a psychiatric ward where she is faced with a great number of women whose only crime was to confront or challenge the police.
Christine is contacted by a preacher named Gustav Briegleb whose mission in life is to reveal all the secrets that the police force would rather keep to themselves. He champions Christine ’s case with great zeal and broadcasts her story during his weekly radio address. Rev. Briegleb is presented as a vital, wise and deeply caring man who refuses to accept the police’s attempts to explain the Christine Collins case away. He is an agitator who serves as a watchdog against the grave injustices inherent in the system. His work in this film is presented as tremendously significant and responsible for a number of changes being adopted by the police. He points out the existence of Gun Squad who operate above the law and shoot down anyone who might be doing something they object to. It’s an image of the law that is frightening in its wholesale disregard for the basic tenets of the judicial system and the film examines just how far these powers reach. Christine and the other inmates are put away simply because they angered certain officers who at that time had the ability to lock anyone up who challenged their authority. One such woman named Carol Dexter (Ryan) was raped by a man she didn’t know was an officer. She reported him and was duly apprehended and placed in the hospital.
Everything in this film resonates with an almost messianic purity. The filming is economical and the cinematography by Tom Stern simply renders each image with an exquisite attention to detail. The film is a total experience with every component working together to create a work of lasting beauty. Clint Eastwood’s score is sparse and deeply melancholy and it underlines the visual poetry of his film with a spiritual essence that is as rare as it is haunting.
The story conveys just how easy it was at the time to be declared insane and otherwise unfit for society. The film presents a scenario where the more one attempts to exert their autonomy, the harsher the punishments administered to them. It’s a totalitarian approach to the psyche and just about any affectation is considered suspect and worthy of punishment. One particular examining nurse (Lindhome) approaches her work with disturbingly cold precision. The film captures her expression in several instances and they chill one to the bone. They seem to represent the absolute unfeeling approach to administering punishments and the startling disconnect between the staff and those women they are ordered to contain. It also suggests the fine line between the women on each side of the divide. The slightest infraction that draws the attention of the wrong authority leads straight into an incarceration that might last for weeks, months, years, or until the end of the inmate’s life. Christine is brought before Dr. John Montgomery (John Harrington Bland) who runs the hospital and there is nothing she can say to convince him she is well. He attempts to get her to sign a paper saying that the boy returned to her is her son but she refuses. She is rewarded by being led to a bid with straps that treat the illness with electric shocks.
The film shows two sides to the police. Captain J.J. Jones (Donovan) represents the mind set that refuses to acknowledge that the police can ever make a mistake and is particularly annoyed by Christine . It is he who has her committed and as the film progresses his core attitude is a blanket denial that anything untoward has ever been perpetrated by the police. He’s the face of institutionalized tyranny as he is part of the system that deprives citizens of their basic rights merely for bringing up concerns that every police forced is required to address openly and without attempting to instill the fear of reprisals. On the other hand is Detective Lester Ybarra (Kelly) who inadvertently uncovers the site of the grisly murders through the testimony of the killer’s accomplice, a boy named Sanford Clark (Alderson). He presents the expected, hardworking, and upstanding aspect of the police and it’s telling of the intention of Eastwood that he’s the exception that makes the rule.
There exists in this film a quiet urgency that is told through the editing. Image after image is juxtaposed in such a way that the languid pace of the film nevertheless is able to express the overall tense march toward justice which is taking place. Christine is a bundle of nerves throughout the film but she never loses sight on what is most important to her and in the end continues to fight for what she knows emphatically is right. The film captures her plight by focusing its attention on her reaction to various assaults on her psyche. She does get emotional at every turn and expresses frustration, rage, anguish, and fear openly and consistently throughout the film. These qualities in the film are presented, through society’s eyes, as weak, typically feminine, and something akin to mental illness if they are left to continue on unabated. Because she is one who expresses herself on strict emotional terms, Christine is seen as unstable. To be so publically distraught surely means that she ought to be locked away and administered to until she regains her senses. It is this attitude that is challenged by this film. It makes a point of saying clearly that mental illness is arbitrary and often related directly to the doctor’s interpretation of what it is. In this film mental illness means often what the police say it means and it’s all but impossible for the victim of such a circumstance to combat what is considered to be sacrosanct.
Gordon Northcott is the type of character who comes straight out of Philip Ridley’s “The Reflecting Skin” or a Flannery O’ Connor story. He’s disjointed, queer, and not altogether present at any given time. That he proves to be a serial murderer only adds to his mystique and allure. His presence adds a creepiness that the film cannot shake off. He trails slime over everything that he touches and this effect has everything to do with just how the actor, Jason Butler Harner, chooses to carry himself in terms of posture. He’s slouched over slightly, grinning madly on occasion, and projecting all the nervous energy of a man with a terrible secret. He’s born aloft by some mysterious agony that leads him on a particularly crooked path so that he becomes a specter with an insatiable desire to realize his aims in a most decisive and irreversible manner.
This film often feels like a blizzard of decay, a substantial message of daring primacy that hooks the flesh and tears it into ribbons. It’s heavy but never in a way that is gratuitous or overbearing; it rides through the night on a coach without a driver leaving devastation in its wake. There isn’t a whole lot of sun in this film and the incessantly dark mood brings it all into crisp focus. It is relentless in its telling of both a personal tale of anguish and an investigation into unjust practices that wholly subvert the expectations of the population at the time in which it is set.
The performances in this film are all natural and dutiful to the script. John Malkovich projects an intensity beneath the garb of a minister. He conveys an upstanding, careful dignity that grounds the film and provides it with a sanctity and a purity that propels it forward. Angelina Jolie is astonishingly good at expressing the myriad emotional states of her character. She sees the film through with a legitimate sense of self that she maintains throughout the film. The fact that we don’t learn much about Christine and this works in the film’s favor because too much knowledge about her would get in the way of the narrative. Jason Butler Harner plays a certifiable lunatic with conviction that comes through in every frame. He’s commanding, terrifying, and wholly believable in this role that demands that he be engaging and a bit dangerous. Jeffrey Donovan possesses a definitive menace for the duration of the film. In his role he’s just as scary and unforgiving as Gordon Northcott which is a testament to the hardline which Capt. Jones employs to defend the image of the force. Riki Lindhome is only in a few scenes but she leaves a lasting impression with the coldness of her manner and the almost sadistic glee emanating from her eyes. She conveys a brutality and a ribald joy in carrying out her orders against the women who have been brought into the hospital for “observation.” Geoffrey Pierson has a totemic presence in this film as the lawyer who forced the issue and challenged the order of systematic torment and deprivation.
Overall, this film paints a harsh picture of the machinations of the institutionalized assault on personal liberty and protection. Through the character of Christine Collins we become privy to a disturbing world where citizens are active fodder for the cruel whims of those in charge of caring for individuals deemed a threat to the perfect order fallaciously presented to the outside world. It’s also a gripping character study replete with boldly drawn characters who all add to the terrible mystery which is at the heart of this film. There is nothing amiss here. Every element works diligently to create a film of merit that effects the soul, mind and body. It is a total experience that leaves one gasping at the end and slightly scarred. What it suggests is a world of great injustice and wanton disregard for the autonomy of those who simply dare to question the legitimacy of various methods which the police employ to go about their business. Christine Collins is presented as an unwitting rabble rouser who galvanizes a city and leaves behind a legacy that in its small way afforded actual change.
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