Changeling

October 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment

This is based on a true story, but if you can avoid learning too much about the true story before seeing it, so much the better.

In 1928, the son of single mother Christine Collins (Angelinia Jolie) goes missing. Months later, the L.A. police returns her son to her. Only she thinks it’s not her son.
CHANGELING
This is a Twilight Zone brought to life without any supernatural or science fictional elements. She finds herself trapped in a nightmare where jumping up and down and screaming “This is not my son!” is only going to get her labeled a crazy person - and in fact the L.A. police department eventually commits her to a mental institution.

Clint Eastwood’s directing just gets smoother with age. The script was written by J. Michael Straczynski (Creator of Babylon 5 and former cop).

The cast is excellent; not just the main actors (John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan from Burn Notice, Jason Butler Harner, Michael Kelly, Amy Ryan), but incidental character actors, and the child actors.

In other movies I’ve never been that impressed with Angelina Jolie, but here she shows what a good actress she is.

There have been movies about Los Angeles corruption that are meticulous in recreating the past (Chinatown, L.A. Confidential), but the production of this one stands out even among those. Not just the cars and the costumes, but every prop or thing hanging on the wall creates a tactileness that makes it seem like the film hijacked a time machine.

At 141 minutes, there are probably some who will think the film loses a little steam towards the end, but this has a narrative purpose, showing how real life cases like this don’t neatly wrap up when the press exposes an injustice, or when a trial concludes.

Posted by Mack Guffin | Filed Under 4 Stars, Amy Ryan, Angelina Jolie, Drama, Jason Butler Harner, Jeffrey Donovan, John Malkovich, Michael Kelly, Theatrical