Every moment of “Changeling” seems to find its focal point in the persona of Angelina Jolie. Her wonderful face, those perfectly shaped lips painted in red, as well as her suggestive eyes shaded by a cloche hat and a rare full-hearted smile, are grandly combined in one too many close-ups that portray, by turns, a desperate and frantic loving soul or a somber, hard to get down motherly spirit.

Thus, Clint Eastwood, in an attempt to obtain a flawless image of 1920s’ Los Angeles, adds several époque elements that offer the film a magic touch, especially when delightful red trolley cars stream down the spotless, clear streets of the city, the unyielding witness of the troubled lives of men and women carrying their worries under their dark, sharply designed hats.

This is the world of “Changeling,” where movement stands still and stillness refuses to freeze, while the director deserves much praise for his depiction achievements and his cast selection. As the bitter flames of vengeance, the sluggish pain of ravenousness and the voracious inferno of anger are outshined by a hopeless mother’s feelings, Clint Eastwood’s film brings to light the story of Christine Collins, a true tale whose silver screen heroine is none other than Angelina Jolie.

Picture this. In March 1928, Christine, a single mom who supervises a horde of phone operators for a living, comes home to find that her 9-year-old son, Walter (Gattlin Griffith), is missing. Obviously, Christine reacts as any mother would. She loses her temper, since she is forced to face her worst nightmare, and turns to the Los Angeles Police Department. The officials’ answer is more than discouraging, as they look into the problem with casualness and arrogance, an attitude which will prove to be only a cold preview of a subsequent worse approach.

Following a relatively long period of time, Capt. J.J. Jones, played by Jeffrey Donovan, reunites Christine with her so-called son in a scene surrounded by fuss and buzz, an advertising background fondly hunted by the police department. However, the little boy is not Christine’s son and she refuses to pretend to be the mother of a lad whom she has never seen before.

Thus, she is regarded as a panic-stricken and disturbed woman, and is afterward treated as a madcap and menace to society. After her claims are overlooked and mocked at in the newspapers, Christine is hospitalized in a mental hospital, where she befriends Carol Dexter (Amy Ryan).

“Changeling” concentrates too much on the acting and structure, that it forgets humanity on its way to justice. The film may be excellently made, but it lacks the warm and trustworthy touch of sympathy and compassion. Facts are cold and by the end of the movie, viewers might actually freeze admiring the watertight scenery and the perfect face of Angelina Jolie.