Aka the one Clint Eastwood did with J. Michael Straczynski, or, as we Babylon 5 fans call him, JMS. Of JMS' post-B5 projects, I'd rank this one pretty high - not his best - that's would be Supreme Power (up to the point where spin-offs were written) - but better than much of his Spider-man run (and I liked much of his Spider-man run, I hasten to add; the first few collections, which dealt with Peter Parker as a teacher and Aunt May finding out about his double life, were fab; let us not speak about how it ended). In terms of a Clint Eastwood film, I'm going to be heretical and say I prefer it to Mystic River, and had some similar themes. Both Eastwood and JMS had a departure from previous projects in that this film as a female main character, and not a young girl but an adult woman, and there is no fatherly mentor figure in sight. (There is one of JMS' sympathetic priests - more G'Kar than Father Theo, though -, but he's only one of Christine's allies, not her mentor, and also Clint Eastwood cleverly cast against type when choosing John Malkovich for the role. Also, Christine has her moment of recognition what she must do with another female character.) The female character in question, Christine Collins, isn't invented but did exist, and is another case of cast-against-type, as she's played by Angelina Jolie who just got an Oscar nomination for it. The setting is Los Angeles in the 20s (with an epilogue in the 30s), with a story one is surprised James Ellroy didn't write about, as it makes the police corruption in novels like L.A. Confidential downright fluffy in comparison, and yet I'm glad he didn't, because I have the feeling the emphasis then would have been on the cops or on the serial killer involved, and not on Christine.

( So what is the story? )