– In the first of two upcoming Clint Eastwood movies – the next to be released in December – Eastwood scores a big-time Oscar threat all over again as he did with “Letters From Iwo Jima,” “Million Dollar Baby” and “Mystic River.” In this true story, it’s 1928, Los Angeles, and little Walter (Gattlin Griffith) wakes to breakfast prepared by his mother, Mrs. Collins (Angelina Jolie), before being dropped off at school. She has a job as an operator for Pacific Telephone, except on Saturday when they have a date for the matinee. That is until she’s called into work and has to leave her son home alone. It’s okay, he tells her. “I’m not afraid of the dark and I’m not afraid of anything.” But when she comes home, he’s gone. Walter is declared missing, but a few months later, the police find him – or so they think. They’re wrong. “He’s not my son!” Jolie declares over and over. But the LAPD has taken such a bad rap lately, they can’t afford to tarnish their image any further, especially with the likes of Reverend Gustav (John Malkovitch) on hand, doing radio shows that bad-mouth the corrupt force. And so the police turn on Jolie, smearing her name publicly, calling her crazy, and eventually institutionalizing her. (Jolie is good at psych wards. She got an Oscar for “Girl, Interrupted.”) As the innocent are scorned and the evil gain power, the movie twists and turns in a way that will remind you of “LA Confidential.” Jason Butler Harner delivers a psychotic performance as the bad guy and Jeffrey Donovan is equally persuasive as the corrupt police captain. Eastwood focuses on Jolie’s suffering with tight shots of her penetrating and smoky eyes peeking out from under her flapper-girl hat. With only a stare, Jolie has the power to make a man drop to his knees, as she did in “Lara Croft.” And she has the acting range to deliver howling cries and moments of rage as Sean Penn did in his Oscar-winning performance (also under Eastwood’s direction) in “Mystic River.” The cage-rattling tension, frustration, and helplessness ripple through the audience, keeping us riveted through the two and a half hours of what turns out to be, hands down, the best movie of the year to date. During a lighter moment, Jolie’s character is working late and listening to the Oscar race of 1935. Foreshadowing? Just watch Angelina Jolie take home the Oscar for best actress this year. Four tiaras
