Changeling

A handsome period piece and a righteously indignant drama of corruption and the abuse of power in Los Angeles, this dramatization of the true story of Christine Collins and her search for her missing son is a perfectly satisfying historical drama of one determined woman who stood up to the system. As it's Angelina Jolie under all the period frocks and hats, she looks a million dollar babe even when she's going through hell (a psychiatric ward, which in 1928 is the same thing, especially when the local cops use it as their secret prison for inconvenient women), and she earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of the long-suffering but undaunted Collins. Clint Eastwood, who came aboard this drama as a director for hire, doesn't seem emotionally invested in the project. But it's a fascinating and shocking story, and Eastwood's meticulous recreation of '20s Los Angeles is its own kind of spectacle. The film also earned Oscar nominations for its art direction and cinematography.

The DVD includes two featurettes: the 13-minute "Partners in Crime: Clint Eastwood and Angelina Jolie," a standard making-of that touches most of the bases and offers a snapshot of Eastwood's on-set style; and the five-minute "The Common Thread: Angelina Jolie Becomes Christine Collins." Exclusive to the Blu-ray disc is a collection of pop-up "U-Control" supplements, which can be accessed during the movie: short picture-in-picture, behind-the-scenes video clips; "Los Angeles: Then and Now" comparisons; and "archives" of research materials. Like so many of these video tracks, you can go for long periods with no supplements, which ultimately makes them more distracting than informative. It's a little more effective to access them directly from the pop-up menu, but not much.