The streets of Los Angeles of 1928 seem like another world in Clint Eastwood’s Changeling, a factually based docudrama where the excesses of police corruption and manipulation of hysterical female victims of crime evoke the most disturbing parts of films like Chinatown and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Angelina Jolie is believably compelling as Christine Collins, a single mom and telephone operator supervisor who returns from an extra weekend shift to an empty house and no sign of her 9-year-old son, Walter. When the police finally offer some help after a required 24-hour wait period, Christine is beside herself with dread. Soon after, the police find the boy, but upon a publicized reunion, she doesn’t recognize the boy at all.

Never completely predictable but not always gratifying, screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski and Eastwood craft their story with high emotional intensity. The strong-willed Christine battles the corrupt police bureaucracy with the help of community organizer, the Rev. Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich), as she tries to unravel the mystery of her son’s disappearance. Perplexing narrative twists lead to elements of child abuse and official medical manipulations that make this film inappropriate for younger audiences.

Eastwood’s production design team and cinematographer Tom Stern make everything look period-picture perfect, but it’s Jolie’s performance as the desperate mom and the creepy supporting performances of Jason Butler Harner as serial killer Gordon Northcott and Colm Feore as police chief James Davis that make the impact of the film so palpable. At 78 years young, Eastwood’s creative output is nearly unprecedented.