"I used to tell Walter, 'Never start a fight... but always finish it.' I didn't start this fight... but by God, I'm going to finish it."
In this film, Angelina Jolie plays Christine Collins, a single mother with a young son named Walter. One day, she leaves him home alone because she had to unexpectedly go in for work. She comes back that night to find that Walter is missing. After contacting the police many times, they arrive with news that her son has been found. Collins soon realizes that the boy they gave her is not her son, but a stranger they are using to cover up their failure of handling the case. Throughout the movie, Collins never stops in her attempts to receive justice and get her real son back, but must go through a countless number of trials to finally derive the truth.
The first time I sat down to watch this movie was last year. I was with my boyfriend, and we didn't get through ten minutes of it because we thought it was so boring. Watching it the second time around, I now realize how wrong we were. This is honestly one of the best movies I've seen in a very long time. And the reason why? Because every single scene was so incredibly compelling. I was on the edge of my seat the whole movie, wondering what would happen next.
The acting was extraordinary. Angelina Jolie fit the role perfectly, and I would almost bet on her being an actual "grieving mother" because of how real she made it seem.
As far as characters go, my favorite was Gordon Northcott (played by Jason Butler Harner). Though he plays a horrible person in this movie, all the scenes he was in were my favorites. His presence made the story itself all the more enthralling, and may be the reason why this film has "thriller" on its list of genres.
I can't believe that I didn't know how great this movie is until now, but I'm very glad I finally got to watch it all the way through. My immediate rating is an 8.8/10.
Characters: 8.4/10
Acting: 8.7/10
Storyline: 8.9/10
Entertainment Value: 9/10
Immediate Rating: 8.8/10
Total Score: 43.8/50
