It is 1920’s Los Angeles and single mother Christine Collins is trying to raise her boy[1] One Sat she is called in to work and when she returns home little Walter Collins is nowhere to be found. The police set about looking[2] and eventually, after 5 months they bring him back. Only the boy they return to Christine is different; she is, however, informed that those changes are the result of her shock and the boys trauma. Why it is quite the done thing for a boy to shrink 4 inches as a result of such a horrifying encounter. And circumcised now you say? Well it is healthy, and who knows what that drifter may have been thinking. Ms. Collins is not about to rest however. She wants her boy back[3]
I did quite enjoy this film. Yes, parts of it were slightly overwrought, with the quivering lip and the beating of the breast[4] But overall I think everyone involved did a pretty good job. Jolie can act. But she does go a little ott in place. But she looks really good in those 1920s outfits. Gliding about on her roller-skates.
What I thought really interesting about this film however was its depiction of what it was to be a woman in the 1920s. On the surface things weren’t too bad for women. Not as well regarded as men, not by a long stretch, but getting better. But this film shows just how fragile their situation could be. Of course you might argue that that is simply because of how corrupt the power structure was. But the fact is that the power structure was heavily in favour of the man. And that, more than the incredible true story of the abduction of Walter Collins, is what stands out in my mind after seeing the film.
I'd exactly the same impression of this film- i thought the representation of a woman of the time was particularly interesting too.