A day at work... without work.

17th November 2009.

Am working in BM today. Aza is on leave so i was requested to replace her. It’s nice that once in a while am assigned on a weekday here cause it is really relaxed here and all i do is online and watch movie the whole day =p whereas when i am in my HQ, am like a department hopping grasshopper. I’ll go back and forth from office to office, and when i’m not, i’ll be facing my computer the whole day.

There are no LAN connection here at the BM office, so i always connect using someone else’s wifi. It was unsecured then, but now the fella locked it up. Stupid idiot. No online-ing for me anymore.

Discovered a new line today, “penang free wifi”. It is an unsecured line as well. Attempt to connect was successful, but the access was “local” only. Idiot. Am back to square one.

Opted to watch movie then. Brought Angeline Jolie’s “Challenging”. Always wanted to watch it as it was quite critically acclaim and was even Oscar nominated, no?

IT WAS ONE HECK OF A MOVIE. Brought tears to my eyes from time to time, and what’s even more heart wrenching is that this is based on a true story. Knowing that someone out there has been agonizing for their whole life just....... sigh.

Anyway this story revolves around Christine Collins (AJ). She is a single mother living with her 9 years old boy, Walter Collins. One fine Saturday, she was requested to replace her colleague at work, so little Walter was left home alone. CC was suppose to leave work at 4pm but was dragged until 6pm. When she finally reached home, she noticed Walter wasn’t anywhere to be found. She searched the house and the neighbourhood. Finally, she lodged a report with the police but they couldn’t not attend to her as it has not been 24 hours since Walter’s disappearance.

Finally, 24 hours passed and Walter was still missing. She lodge a report with the police. A nationwide search was set off but to her dismay, Walter couldn’t be found. The devastated mother continued to live each day, hoping to see her son again.

Not long later (i think approx 5 weeks), Captain JJ Jones approached CC with good news. Walter has been found in some other stated. CC was brought to the train station to reunite with her son.

There, her nightmare began to unfold. The little boy that came down from the train station was NOT her son. However, the boy insisted that he was her son, and the police, Captain JJ too insisted that the boy was her son. They somehow convinced her that she is in a state of shock, therefore she is unable to immediately recognise her son. News spread like wire fire stating that the LAPD successfully reunite both mother and son and LAPD was heavily credited.

CC knew she was not insane and she knew the boy was not her son despite the whole world telling her, he is. She brought the boy to Walter’s panel dentist and the dentist confirmed that the boy is indeed NOT Walter as Walter has some flaws at his teeth while the boy didn’t. CC then brought the boy to Walter’s high school teacher. The boy didn’t know her name, nor does he know where to sit in his class. The teacher, Mrs Fox too, confirmed that the boy is definitely not Walter.

CC confronted Captain JJ again and again saying that the LAPD got her the wrong boy. Not wanting to jeopardise his reputation, Captain JJ brush CC off saying that she is insane.
When CC couldn’t take it anymore, she went on and held a press conference stating that the LAPD had not only found the wrong boy, they even refuse a new search. This got the attention of a reverend who has been actively broadcasting his radio programme, shedding lights on the overtly corrupted and politically driven law enforcers. The reverend met up with CC and advice her not to go all out as this will cause much embarrassment to LAPD which will in return, jeopardise her life.

As the same time, the town mayer ordered the head police to “clear up this matter silently” as he cannot afford to have any issues affecting his election.

True enough. Captain JJ commanded his officers to bring in CC to the police station. When she rejected his order to stop the whole “wrong child” saga, she was immediately detained under Code 12 and was sent straight off to the mental asylum.

She went through much ordeal in the mental asylum. She was physically and mentally challenged and what’s worst, not a single word she said, is head. The head doctor even threaten her to either sign a paper stating that she has indeed got the “right child”, or the doctors will proceed her to more gruelling psychotherapies which might even kill her one day. She stands by her own judgement and refused to sign the paper. She continues to suffer dreadfully in the mental asylum.

At the same time, a police officer was given the assignment to pick up a young boy from Canada who entered USA without legal permit who also have an unpleasant juvi records.
When the boy was brought back and questioned, he was distraught and revealed the worst crime ever committed in the history of USA.

The boy lived with his cousin brother, Gordon at a ranch. Gordon, is a serial killer who kidnaps young boys, hold them captives, and brutally murder them thereafter. Gordon forced the boy to be his accomplice or else he will be murdered too. The police officer handed a stack of photos comprising of missing boys and asked the young boy to identify whether those boys in the photos are the victim. True enough, most of the missing boys, turns out to be victim of brutal murder, include Walter, CC’s son.

The boy lead the police team to the ranch where the murder took place. Dead bodies were found buried in the ground.

When the reverend learned about this, he immediately tagged along his lawyer and freed CC from the mental asylum. The hunt for Gordon began and he was eventually caught.

Gordon was brought to court for hearing. Although he pleaded not guilty, the juries found him guilty, and the judge sentenced him to 2 years in prison and he will be hanged to death thereafter.

At the same time, Captain JJ and the head of police was also brought to court for forcefully detaining an innocent woman in the mental asylum and illegally ordered a boy to pretend to be a missing child in order to close the case fast. Captain JJ and the head of police, was expelled immediately from LAPD.

CC also fought for the women in the asylum. Turns out many of them were victims of misuse of authority by the police. There were women who were beaten up badly by police and when they tried to defend themselves, they were sent straight to the mental asylum to suffer.

CC won the court case and all the women in the mental asylum were freed. She also facilitated a new act which prevents police to sent women off to mental asylum without proper court order and supporting health documents.

2 years later, before the death sentence of Gordon, he sent a telegraph to CC, requesting to see her before his death to tell her the truth. She went to see him, but he did not revealed anything. He was then. Hang to death.

Another 3 years later, a missing boy who was kidnapped by Gordon, was found alive. His name was David, and he was Mr and Mrs Clay’s son. CC was asked to join the joyful reunion as well as to hear the polices’ interrogation with him. David told the police how other little boys were murdered, and how he escaped as well.

Turns out he escape together Walter and another boy. While escaping, David got stuck and could not escape, but Walter risked his life by running back to save David. David was freed and ran for his life.

He could not confirm whether Walter is alive, as that was the last time he saw him.

CC was distraught but at the same time, proud of her little boy who risked his life to save another’s. This incident gave her something she never had in years; HOPE.

The movie ended without CC even seeing her boy again. However, she never stopped hopping and she never stopped searching.

..................................

What’s so touching about this movie is the length that this woman will go in hope to see her son again, despite the fact that she was the oppressed gender of that time which is the 20th century. She challenged the law enforcers, survived mental asylum, fought for women’s right, and she was the first women at that time allowed to visit a serial killer on the eve of his sentence.

Sex appeal aside, Angelina Jolie is one fantastic actress. The amount of emotions that she showed in this movie was definitely worth an Oscar. Kudos to her. Her tears were so real and her acting was fully submerged into the character of Christine Collins. I shed tears so many times watching it!

I remembered watching Angelina Jolie in Gia and i remembered thinking, who on earth has the ability to play this kind of role? If you don’t know Gia, please go and google and you’ll understand what i meant!

I also remembered watching her in an interview about her role in Gia. Even Angelina Jolie admitted that the Gia role, was so complex, so deep, so psychologically challenged that she almost went insane filming the movie.

It’s true. Gia was America’s first supermodel to die of AIDS. She lived a notorious life. She grew up in a broken family; her mom’s boyfriend tried to rape her and when she told her mom, she mom brushed her off instead. Then she was spotted by a talent scout and was quickly became a reknowned fashion model. But at the same time, she battled alcoholic addiction, drug addiction and was having crazy sexual relationship with both males and females. She eventually contracted AIDS from a “wet shot”. She was in desperate need to drugs and when she could not find her supplier, she opted to share a needle with a stranger.
Her life then began to die, slowly.

Gia was a very very heart wrenching story and i don’t think i want to see it again. It was just, DISTURBING! Yeah that’s the word! No wonder Angelina Jolie said she almost went mad playing the character!

Anyway, point is she is one heck of an actress. She is just like Johnny Dept eh? They are both weird and are highly versatile actors. =)