Changeling Movie
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Storyline
TAGLINES
To find her son, she did what no one else dared.
A mother's prayer for her kidnapped son to return home is answered, though it doesn't take long for her to suspect the boy who comes back is not hers.
| Angelina Jolie | Christine Collins |
| Gattlin Griffith | Walter Collins |
| Michelle Martin | Sandy |
| Jan Devereaux | Operator #1 |
| Erica Grant | Operator #2 |
| Antonia Bennett | Operator #3 |
| Kerri Randles | Operator #4 |
| Frank Wood | Ben Harris |
| Morgan Eastwood | Girl on Tricycle |
| Madison Hodges | Neighborhood Girl |
| John Malkovich | Rev. Gustav Briegleb |
| Colm Feore | Chief James E. Davis |
| Devon Conti | Arthur Hutchins |
| Ric Sarabia | Man at Diner |
| J.P. Bumstead | Cook |
| Clint Eastwood |
8.10 out of 10 (18414 votes)
Visitor Reviews
An Unconvincing Clint
posted on 26 Aug 2009The truth is a tricky construct. Words are uttered and, depending on who says them, they are afforded a certain level of belief. Sometimes the truth is so entirely outlandish that believing it is a struggle. And sometimes that struggle is worth it because the truth has the potential to enlighten and call for change. The truth in a movie is almost inherently a falsehood. The intention of telling the truth may be genuine but film requires reconstruction and subjectivity in order for its message to be told. So when Clint Eastwood's latest directorial effort, CHANGELING, announces at its very start that what we are about to bear witness to is a true story, a certain weight is lent while a certain caution is exercised. The truth here is that a boy by the name of Walter Collins was abducted in 1928 and the boy that was returned to his mother, Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), five months later was not her son, but rather a boy claiming to be her son. The thought that no one believed her truthful claims is a wide stretch to begin with and Eastwood, despite setting a complete scene, did not ultimately convince me that any of this actually happened.Of course, to some extent, much of the story did happen. In the late 1920's and early 1930's, Los Angeles played home to an atrocious set of serial murders known then as the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders. Walter Collins was said to be a victim of these horrible crimes, in which a man by the name of Gordon Northcott (played in the film by Jason Butler Harner), would lure young boys back to his run down ranch, lock them up in chicken coops and torture them before ultimately killing them like helpless animals and burying their bodies in his backyard. At the same time, a boy by the name of Arthur Hutchens Jr. claimed to be the missing Collins boy in order to get a free ride from Iowa to California. When Christine Collins told the police that this was not her son – something Jolie says repeatedly in the film like a beautiful but busted record – they tried to convince her that she was mistaken and confused. She pushed and was eventually incarcerated in the psychiatric ward of the L.A. county hospital for her supposed delusions. She was released ten days later when Hutchens finally admitted he was not Walter Collins.The facts are what they are but yet somehow, when Eastwood tells the story, it seems ridiculous and CHANGELING becomes a disappointing experience because you want for it to be better than it is. Cinematographer, Tom Stern, shoots Patrick M. Sullivan Jr.'s delicate and detailed art direction with a soft sensitivity that births an encompassing sense of nostalgia for a time I never knew. And it always surprises me just how breathtaking Jolie is. As the single mother at the center of this controversy, she is composed and determined one moment and fragile and frightened the next. Sometimes, she is all of these things and more at the same time. Unfortunately for Jolie, she seems to keep picking prestige projects where she outshines the material itself. J. Michael Straczynski's script is overly facile as it chalks up all of Collins' difficulties to her being a woman, that ever-emotional creature that cannot possibly function with reason. And Eastwood has all of her male aggressors adopt that same mentality. So when a doctor tells Christine Collins that of course it is possible that her boy shrunk three inches after this ordeal and that she cannot see this because she is a woman and has no objectivity, we chuckle at how ludicrous this is instead of recoil at the horror.Throughout CHANGELING, you can feel Eastwood's sense of accomplishment. There he is behind the lens, standing up straight and proud. He is the champion of women's rights, exposing injustices and not afraid be the man that does so. What he doesn't see on the other side of his smug sense of accomplishment is that he is actually detracting from Christine Collins' plight by oversimplifying the whole affair. The specific details can never truly be exposed but this truly happened and by trying to tell his limited take on the truth, Eastwood has turned the truth into a bad joke.
Prepare to be rung out and hung to dry
posted on 26 Aug 2009Catching on my 2008 movies, no way was I about to miss Mr. Eastwood's. By now we know the outline of the (true) story. Clint wrote the musical score too, which was haunting and therapeutically calming. Movie making doesn't get much better than this. Yes, you'll sit straight up in outrage and bite your fingers to keep from yelling. Your stomach will clinch in disgust. We learn a little about 1920s L.A. and the police corruption of the period. Thank God for the Good People (a minister (John Malkovich), a police supervisor (Michael Kelly), a lawyer -- the types who manage to penetrate the wall of stupidity and crazy ambition epidemic in these type of stories. (Stupidity really is "the most powerful force on earth".) Angelina was flawless, riveting, a stunning personality -- as usual. Even the child actors were excellent. I was so glad Mr. Eastwood and the writer, J. Michael Straczynski, did not spend more time than necessary on the child killer, but rather on the efforts to correct the unholy System. Don't miss it.
A tale of two evils...
posted on 26 Aug 2009Typical Eastwood fare here - serious subject, recent history period drama, bleak outlook with a touch of redemption for the leads at the end, this was nevertheless a powerful, engrossing expose of what passed for good policing in late 20's America. Taking the film at face value, this was a convincing depiction of pre-Depression America, with some great details - the roller-skating supervising in the telephone company by Angeline Jolie's Caroline Collins character in particular was a neat period-defining touch, whilst good use is made of exterior locations, at psychopathic murderer Northcott's "chicken-coop" location, the train station where Jolie is "reunited" with her supposed son and the recreation of her suburban neighbourhood equally with the interiors at the grisly "psychiatric hospital" where Jolie is incarcerated, as well as the courtroom, police station and even the inside of Jolie's house. Atmosphere and realism are inset from the outset.The story, almost unbelievable in its premise, but bolstered by the "based on a true story" legend over the opening titles (I'll research its claim later!) makes for tense and at times unbearable viewing as Jolie's Kafka-type nightmare almost fully envelops her and only comes into the light with the aid of an anti-corruption radio evangelist preacher and a cop who finally does his job right and actually listens to the crucial witness testimony of Northcott's unwilling teenage accomplice.The film however suffers a bit from being overlong in places, symptomatic of Eastwood's typical slow-paced style and there appear to be three or four endings tagged on one after the other, each good enough in itself to close the film before the credits roll. I also didn't feel the dual-trial scenes worked together, Eastwood possibly posting the question about just who the bigger villains actually were here, the psychopathic killer who completely believes in Jolie or the back-covering inhumanity of the Chief of Police and his chief officer who think nothing of foisting an impostor on a traumatised mother and then unbelievably throw her into a ruthlessly run psychiatric hospital to hush her protests. The acting is of a high standard. Early on, I did find Jolie a bit showy in her performance but she learns the less is more maxim as the film progresses, particularly as she descends into the bedlam of her psychiatric treatment where she witnesses and suffers almost inhuman cruelty and deprivation, before her release which sees her thence-forward display a telling stoic dignity in her pursuit of the truth. It's very much her film, although the support is strong in almost every other part too.Eastwood is now very settled in his style and any viewer knows they're not going to be jolted out of their seat by anything put in their way. His skill is in story-telling and here again, with the aid of fine cinematography and an effective soundtrack of his own composition, he delivers a shocking story in a credible and persuasive way to keep you rooted, most of the time anyway, in your seat for its 160 minute duration.
Rollerskater in the dark
posted on 24 Aug 2009So you're Clint Eastwood, everybody knows you're a patriot, a conclusion gleaned from the fact that the man just shot two WWII movies back to back. So what does a Sarah Palin supporter do for an encore? You pull the rug out from under everybody's feet, that's what. "The Changeling" is a melodrama like how "Unforgiven" was a western. There's a prism, shot, of course, with the luxury of hindsight that underlines the dated sensibilities of the original incarnation. In the 1992 Academy Award-winning picture, the filmmaker demythologized the genre by examining the morality of violence through the eyes of an aging gunslinger. This time, the emotional violence inherent in melodrama, or what was considered as women's pictures, is foregrounded by our awareness that Lars Von Trier's "Dancer in the Dark"(itself a product of "weepies" such as King Vidor's "Stella Dallas") informs this period-piece melodrama. Von Trier, well-known to the international film community as being vehemently anti-American, would seem like an unlikely inspirational for this card-carrying Republican, who proves to be a true maverick by answering "Flags of our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima" with a film that stealthily attacks the ideology of our country."The Changeling" takes place in the dark ages, the late-twenties, an era where women were expected to be homemakers, not breadwinners, and above all else, to be subservient towards men. As Spencer Tracy put it to Katherine Hepburn in George Cukor's "Adam's Rib", "I want a wife, not a competitor!" And mind you, this was 1949. If a woman tried to get ahead, like Stella Dallas(Barbara Stanwyck) does in the 1937 remake that bears her namesake, the woman was usually punished for having desires that existed outside the sanctity of the prescribed domains mapped out for her kind. In "The Changeling", Christine Collins(Angelina Jolie) is a supervisor at a telephone company. While the row of women are seated at their switchboards, Christine glides on by them; her feet enabled by rollerskates, her position of authority enabled by a man. The scene where her boss promises Christine a managerial job is two-fold for its dual existence in time. At the outset of the opening credits, the filmmaker employs the original Universal insignia, which has the effect of orientating the audience to purview "The Changeling" as a contemporary film of its time: the late-twenties. Christine's boss seemingly pats himself on the back while he offers his protégé his kudos, and while it may play like condescension to our modern sensibilities, our postulated late-twenties selves are asked to find his behavior normal, as we consider the context of her promotion, an era when women bosses were more than likely, in short supply. In keeping with the genre requirements of melodrama, Christine is punished for being something other than a mother or a wife. On her day off, on a day when Christine promised her son Walter(Gattlin Griffith) a day at the movies, the mother is asked to sub for a sick supervisor. When we next see her at work, the skates are off; Christine's nonchalance conveyed by her gliding is replaced by the more humble act of walking. In her office, on the phone in tears, she's just like all the women, in a seated position, as her amorous boss walks past the doorway. The red on her lips has been superseded by the red in her bloodshot eyes. Christine gets her just desserts for being a siren to her boss. Late in "The Changeling", Christine is punished again, in a scene that evokes "Stella Dallas", the bereft woman is forced to look at somebody else's happiness, through a window(just like Stella, who watches her daughter get married), as a woman and child are reunited after a long spell, in which all of the missing children were presumed dead. The preceding scene is especially cruel because the caller should have been more specific, more sensitive, when referring to the found child. Christine's expectations, not to mention, the audience's expectations are raised, as the caller relays to our heroine that "a child has been found." Christine must think she means her Walter. It's a shrewd bit of audience manipulation when we learn, along with Christine, at the police station, that it's not her child who has been recovered. "The Changeling" most resembles "Dancer in the Dark" at the hanging. As the killer stands on the platform, he half-sings "thirteen steps", a reference to Bjork's "107 Steps"; also, he warbles "Silent Night" under a black hood. In the Von Trier film, the Icelandic pop princess sings "The Next-to-Last Song" in the same a capella style. Earlier, the killer buys a bus ticket to Seattle(the setting for Selma's cross-bearing, and Walter, in what was to be his last words, tells Christine that he's "not afraid of the dark...not afraid of anything." In referencing "Dancer in the Dark", Christine's happiness about finally having "hope", concerning her missing child, makes such faith in Walter's aliveness seem like the ultimate torture, the ultimate expression of melodrama's dark side. To be loyal to a dead child takes precedence over her professional accomplishments, and only then, by keeping the mother in limbo, in perpetuity, can Christine be considered a good woman.
Changeling: A child secretly exchanged for another
posted on 22 Aug 2009(There are Spoilers) Coming home from work at the L.A Telephone Company, where she's a supervisor, Christine Collins, Angelina Jolie, finds that her nine year old son Water, Gaittin Griffith, had gone missing. Going to the police to file a missing persons report Christine runs into the first of many horrors she suffers throughout the film in the police's indifference to finding her son Walter. It's when the police finally locate Walter some five months later in a diner at far off DeKalb Illinois that Christine's problems, instead of ending, star to intensify. The boy isn't her missing son Walter and what's more the L.A police-who took the credit in locating and returning "Walter" to her-in wanting to finally close the case insist that he is! So much so that they have Christine committed to an insane asylum when she refuses to go along with them!True story about the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders committed by the deranged Gordon Northcott, Jason Butler Hanner,back in 1928 that stunned the entire nation. The person who unknowingly uncovered these ghastly ax murders-Christine Collins-almost ended up being committed for life in an insane asylum by the very police who's job it was to solve them. It was when L.A Det. Lester Ybarra, Michael Kelly, interviewed this 15 year-old Canadian runaway Sandford Clark, Eddie Anderson, that the truth-about the ax murders- finally saw he light of day. It was Sandford who identified a photo of Walter Collins as one of his crazed Uncle Gordon's victims that cracked the case wide open. Uncovering the victims, as many as 20, at the Northcott Ranch not only leads to the arrest of Gordon Northcott but the indictment of the L.A police in their total incompetence in not chasing down the clues,in the case of the missing Walter Collins, that may have prevent any more murders from happening.****SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT DOWN**** Besides the tragic story about the missing Walter Collins-who in fact was never found dead or alive- and what his mother Christine went through to find him the "Changeling" also shows the amount of corruption that existed in the LAPD back then and how it allowed, with the police participating in it, crime to get out of hand in the "City of Angels". Gordon Northcott who was sentenced to be executed at San Quentin Prison was still up to his old tricks when he, from his cell in solitary confinement, sent Christine a telegram expressing remorse for his crimes and willing to tell her if her son Walter was in fact one of his victims. This lead to one of the most explosive scenes in the entire movie with Christine, while visiting him in a holding cell with a prison guard present, smacked Northcott silly when she realized that he was, by pulling her leg in what he knew about Walter, just extending her suffering for his own sick and perverted pleasure! As for Northcott he was to meet his maker the very next morning, on the San Quentin gallows, and that, unlike his sickening game of cat and mouse he played with Christine the previous day, was nothing for him to laugh about!
Jolie Surprises By Not Showing Skin And Instead Showing Much Talent
posted on 22 Aug 2009The CHANGELING is a frightening cautionary tale of historical abuses by those in power against the meager. No, I'm not talking about the last eight years under George W. Bush. This is 1928 Los Angeles, and a single mother named Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie, WANTED) returns home from work to find her young son Walter (Gattlin Griffith) missing. After frantic calls to the local police department, the next day a patrol car is sent out and a missing person's report is filed. Five months later Walter is found and brought home ...but it isn't Walter. He was taller ...and was not circumcised. Ms. Collins pleads with the police to find her son and take back this imposter but the police refuse.Captain J.J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan, HITCH) of the LAPD tries to make Ms. Collins seem crazy or out of touch. He goes so far as to have her incarcerated at a mental institution where she finds other women like herself who have challenged the authority of the police only to have everything taken away.Meanwhile we learn that an insane man named Gordon Stewart Northcott (Jason Butler Harner, JOHN ADAMS miniseries) has kidnapped many children and taken them to his distant ranch where unthinkable things were done. Most of this was discovered when a Canadian child illegally in the U.S. spills the goods to a semi-decent cop, Detective Ybarra (Michael Kelly, DAWN OF THE DEAD) who tries to bring this to the attention of his superiors only to be rebuffed because "it doesn't look good for the department." On Ms. Collins' side (even while she's in the loony bin) is Reverend Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich, BURN AFTER READING) who learns of Christine's problems with the LAPD and already has a running battle going on with them over their autocratic style. His assistance is invaluable in aiding in Christine's release from the mental institution ...as well as releasing the other women who were wrongfully imprisoned on behalf of the LAPD.History tells us that Mr. Northcott gets what's coming to him. He's a slightly pitiable and disgusting fellow who was probably completely insane. Actor Jason Harner played him exceptionally well; a creepy and frightening premonition from the past. We also learn that several LAPD higher-ups get canned in the wake of the breaking news about the despicable things the authorities have done.Most of the praise obviously goes to Angeline Jolie for her excellent portrayal of Christine Collins. You can feel the rising tension as she battles to find her son and butts up against the walls of "justice." Frustration is palpable. And you hope beyond hope that little Walter survived his ordeal. But did he? History tells us he probably didn't. But who knows. He could be a changeling, wandering out there, lost amidst the masses. We hope...(Final note: Clint Eastwood needs to stay behind the camera from now on. He's got what it takes to remain a powerful director. Please!)
One of the best films of 2008
posted on 20 Aug 2009Eastwood's "Changeling" tells the true story of a kind and strong woman struggling against the paternalistic and allegedly corrupt male establishment of the Los Angeles Police Department and a mental hospital in the nineteen-twenties and -thirties. The contrast between the good and the bad is black and white, but the tale is told in a matter-of-fact way, and so the feminism of the film resides in the bleak whole and there are no preachy moments.Beyond the likely fact that Christine is being treated more paternalistically by the authorities than a man would be in a comparable situation, there are some universal reminders of the frustration, disbelief, and pain that can be caused by people having power over you: a doctor who interprets your every word as a sign of a possible mental-health problem, twisting your words if necessary (and who can still keep his job in the end); and a policeman who condemns your behaviour in a noble language of 'responsibility' and the like, which corresponds no doubt to public stereotypes and certain typical cases, but which is simply wrong and hypocritical in your case.Angelina Jolie was good in "A Mighty Heart" (2007) and is Oscar-nominated here. At the time of writing, she suffers a bit from a similar celebrity stigma that has long attached to Tom Cruise: when Jolie appears on the screen, the viewer sees Angelina Jolie, not a character in a film. That this impression lasts no longer than five minutes here is a sign of a very good actress and film. And Jolie's face does look awfully attractive, as her pale cheeks, red lips, and eyes half-covered under a twenties style hat stand out amidst the muted colours of this beautiful film.Still, half an hour of its two-hour-plus running time could easily have been cut from here and there.
A woman's story of hope and courage
posted on 20 Aug 2009Changeling, a well directed movie and well told movie. It is based on true events of 1920. It depicts a story of bold woman Christine Collins and shows how she fought for justice and freedom. How she fought for her son and held hope until last moment. The film shows cruelness against child. The film captures the emotion of mother for her missing child. The film is superb and shows woman empowerment. Cinematography is perfect. It takes you to the time of 1920s. The power of government imposed upon one citizen is shown in the movie. Some of the scene of the movies are very intense and powerful. Justice done at the climax is great. Hats off to Clint Eastwood. Go for it...
mother, despair, crime, injustice, courage, love, hope
posted on 18 Aug 2009I thought that this was a fine movie. Even if Angelina isn't looking very well with all that makeup and the hair style, but she plays her role very well. It's the story of a single mother who raises a child by herself. One Saturday, when she is forced to work, her son disappears. After 5 months(if I'm not wrong)the police brings her another boy, forcing her to admit that he is her son. When she brings evidences of the wrong trade that has been made and desperately tries to make them understand that her boy isn't yet found, she ends up in a sanatorium. The police is covering all up because they don't want to admit that they were wrong and by that risking to lose their influence. After a while it's discovered that the boy and many others like them, were victims of a serial killer, the police is brought down...the movie ends with the returning of a boy who was trapped like the others and got away with the help of Angelina's son...It's not known what happened to the boy and mom is still waiting for him, even if the years are passing by...I liked it because even if women had no wrights back there, she doesn't abandon her son trying to make it easier for her...The movie was very good because the boy was not found...(after all most a year it would be strange to find the boy unharmed)...and will not be, but the mother remains with the untouched hope and fate that even after years he'll come back...after all she can't do anything than wait for him...
Clint Eastwood's Passion Play
posted on 08 Aug 2009In the old days, Clint Eastwood was Dirty Harry, the vigilante maverick pitted against a world of bleeding heart liberals. Now times have changed and he's drifted more toward the left. In Million Dollar Baby, spokespersons for the Roman Catholic Church are the bad guys because they're against assisted suicide. In Letters from Iwo Jima, Eastwood attempts to soft pedal Japanese fanaticism by offering up the quid pro quo of a 'good' Japanese soldier to balance out a 'bad' one. And here in 'Changeling', it's the corrupt LAPD from the late 1920s which is the subject of another one of Eastwood's morality plays.In Eastwood's world view, it's simply a question of good vs. evil. That's why he's always drawn to melodrama which is the perfect type of drama for reminding us that he's always on the 'right' (and winning) side! Changeling's screenwriter, Michael Straczynski, researched this true crime story for a year and then changed the facts not only to improve the narrative but to also manipulate our emotions. Part of his quandary was that he needed to integrate two tangentially related aspects of the story, the kidnapping of the 10 year old boy, Walter Collins, and the mass murders of children on the Northcott Farm (Straczynski decided not to put the killer's mother into the script even though she actually confessed to the murder of the Collins boy and was sentenced to prison).Stracyznski is much more successful simply relating the details of the investigation into the child killings. Tension builds as one of the detectives uncovers the horror quite by chance after having to track down a juvenile runaway who needs to be deported to his native Canada. Before he's shipped back home, the juvenile reveals the sickening details of what happened and this in turn leads to a series of grim scenes including the digging up of evidence, the flight and apprehension of the accused in Vancouver, flashbacks of the actual crimes and the eventual trial and execution of the murderer. James Harner as Gordon Northcott, looks a lot like the actual killer (check the old photos!) and ably conveys his creepy manic and manipulative demeanor. When dealing with the historical facts of the crime itself, Eastwood is on solid ground. He falters however when he dwells too long on the sickening circumstances of the killer's execution. What exactly is the point in drawing out this scene? Again it's part and parcel of Eastwood's strategy to champion himself as the guardian of morality. The bad guys always must get their comeuppance whether it's pointing a gun at a miscreant and blurting out "make my day" or having a serial killer twist at the end of the hangman's rope a little longer than the viewer needs to see.Unfortunately Stracyznski appears to be at a complete loss as to what to do with the film's protagonist, Christine Collins. In real life, Collin's husband was locked up in San Quentin. Could it be that Collins wasn't the saint that Stracyznski makes her out to be? It certainly would have been more interesting to have Collins depicted as a complicated human being than the melodramatic victim depicted here. Collin's victimhood reaches its apotheosis when the police lock her up without a warrant at the Psychopathic Hospital. In a derivative scene right out of 'One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest', Collins is subjected to various degradations including a strip search, imprisonment on the mental ward, a coercive interview by the institution's vile psychiatrist and shock treatment given to a prostitute who comes to her aid (Stracyznski fails to do his research since shock treatment wasn't used in mental institutions until 1937!).Angelina Jolie is not an actor of great range to begin with but here she's saddled with a script that tells us virtually nothing about its main character. Jolie is good at histrionic expression but after awhile there are a few too many scenes where she pleads, "I want my child back". The film's ending loses dramatic tension since the protagonist becomes a passive participant. Collins not only sits through Northcottt's trial but she also is a spectator at the City inquiry into police misconduct in her case. In addition to Christine, the good Reverand Briegleb, played by John Malkovich, is another overly self-righteous character who remains underdeveloped (I also wondered if the police were so corrupt, why didn't they at least harass the Reverand at any point?) James Donovan's J.J. Jones was much more on the mark as Christine's tormentor (although the Irish accent probably would have been more applicable to New York than Los Angeles). Despite his liberal leanings these days, Clint Eastwood will never give up his original moniker as 'Dirty Harry'. He'll always be the man to protect us from the criminal element whether they be ordinary street thugs, corrupt police and government officials, serial killers or (as in his new film, Gran Torino) Asian street gangs! As long as Eastwood continues to see himself as an arbiter of morality, we will continue to endure more melodramatic tales of stereotyped self-righteous victims triumphing over cold-hearted villains.
Strong Film
posted on 08 Aug 2009When I saw the previews to this film I wanted to see it as soon as I could. This film was very well done. I enjoyed the whole story and I think Angelina Jolie did a GREAT job for her role. The one thing I loved about this film is through pretty much the whole thing you could feel what Christine Collins was feeling through the horrible ordeal. I don't have children but I can't imagine one of my children Vanishing! I recommend seeing this film as soon as you can if you haven't already, its a great film and I believe it is well worth your money to definitely see it.9/10
A very, very good movie... instant favorite of mine
posted on 06 Aug 2009Changeling is a perfect example of a dramatic, sad story of courage, endurance, and a testament to how some things were just unfair and out of people's hands in the old days. Angelina Jolie shines in her Oscar-nominate role a a single-mother whose son goes missing in 1928 Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the LAPD is under public scrutiny at the time and very eager to solve the missing boy case as soon as possible. This film is very engaging, always interesting, and very well acted. I was very impressed with the way it was shot, the set decorations as well as Eastwood's entire approach to the project. It was stylistically different than Mystic River or Million Dollar Baby, an on the same level of those films (much better than Million Dollar Baby which i consider a great film but not flawless). The supporting cast was perfect as well as Malkovich, Donovan and Amy Ryan all gave refreshing performance. There are some amazing scenes between Malkovich and Donovan, Malkovich and Jolie and Jolie and Donovan. Despite this film being a tear-jerker, a bit frustrating to watch early on, it definitely pays off, and is a big achievement for Eastwood. I enjoyed every bit of it, and highly recommend it to any fan of good Drama films. 10/10 #35 on my list of all time favorite films.
As Engaging and Powerful As It Can Get!!
posted on 04 Aug 2009Changeling has Clint Eastwood donning the director's hat and Angelina Jolie in the lead role. The movie is set in the year 1928 and is based on a true story. Being a Clint Eastwood fan, it is with great expectations that I went and saw this movie. A couple of hours later, the movie ended and there were a plethora of emotions inside of me. Yet another film by Clint Eastwood had had a deep impact on me! The struggle of a woman to find her lost son is a long grueling search that turns into a fight against a corrupt police force and an immoral establishment of the city of Los Angeles in the year of 1928. The film highlights the grave injustice the ordinary citizens had to face during that time by the very establishment that was meant to serve and protect them.If you thought that L.A Confidential showed the dark side of the Los Angeles Police Department then Changeling shows it as a living hell where the words - justice and morals didn't exist in the dictionary. That such travesties happened in the most powerful democracy in the world is both shocking and shameful.Changeling is as engaging a drama as it can get! An interesting story is brilliantly executed. The effort put in by the screenplay writer is clearly evident when during the run time of 139 minutes, not once do you feel that the plot is dragging and saying anything too much or too less. Clint Eastwood's school of cinema is often conventional and focuses on the story. Changeling too is a story well told. On one hand Clint shows the shallowness of a corrupt system and on the other hand he shows the strength and perseverance of a mother which serve as a wakeup call to set things right in the system.It is the toughest challenge to base a movie in the 1920s and make it seem real and the last time it was done well was in the 2001 Tom Hanks starer 'Road to Perdition'. It is the brilliant cinematography in Changeling that gives the film that highly authentic feel in which you are submerged and lost in those 2 hours, witnessing first hand, the mystery unfolding. The backdrop of the city of Los Angeles is after Angelina Jolie, the most important character in the movie. Changeling is high on production values! The film is A + on production values be it the artwork, the cinematography or the costumes and makeup of the characters. It says a lot when you drape the sexiest woman in the world with loose fitted garments and make it seem real! And let's talk about Angelina Jolie. I, for long have maintained that she due to her sexy body and those luscious lips she has got more than her due and is overrated as an actress. But now, after having watched this movie, I eat my words! From frame to frame Angelina dominates with her intensity and her subtlety. One feels the excruciating pain and desperation of her character. Like in that horror of a scene when you jump out of your seat crying for help when she is about to get the electrical shock at the asylum or in that scene where she screams and asks the convict whether he indeed killed her son or not! Her performance is highly deserving of an Oscar.The supporting characters of the comforting Reverand, the menace that is Captain Jones, the heinous killer - Northcott, and the morally upright Detective Ybaraa are played well by the different actors and deserve a high amount of praise."Changeling" is a rather depressing movie but it inspires tremendous courage in you. Courage to stand up the next time you face injustice!
Power Performance
posted on 04 Aug 2009"Based on true ..." movies are a peculiar thing. Most of the times the strike a nerve with me ... the wrong one and I can't really get myself to like them. This one has of course a few advantages over other movies. Angelina Jolie for once (not only good looking, but also a good actress), but most importantly Clint Eastwood as a director. Clint shows us again that he has learned from the best.The story borderlines often "kitsch" territory, but thankfully never crosses that line. While some film dramatics/dynamics effects are AWOL, this doesn't really effect the movie. A drama worthy your attention and your time.
An interesting story told well.
posted on 02 Aug 2009Christine Collins: "The boy they brought back is not my son."ClintEastwood s knows a good story, and he knows how to tell it on film. Not everything he does is as powerful as his depiction of a dynamic female boxer in Million Dollar Baby, for which Hilary Swank won a best actress Oscar among four for the film. In Changeling he presents another strong woman, Christine Collins, played by the notable Angelina Jolie. Because she is directed to weep at almost every turn and regularly underplay her grit, Jolie won't win accolades, nor will Eastwood rack up the nominations as he frequently does in Oscar season. But his adaptation of the historic Wineville Chicken Murders chills with his perceptions about the capriciousness of crime and the determination of those who choose to fight it.In a Prohibition-era 1928, Collins gets word that the Los Angeles Police Department is returning her kidnapped eight-year old son. When she sees him at the station, a finely directed sequence showing the forces of motherhood and politics clash, she knows it is not her child. LAPD, needing the good publicity, forces her to take the boy overnight with the logic that she is merely in shock. The rest of this overly long thriller carefully traces the discoveries leading to resolutions and disappointments. Along the way, police corruption is exposed, mental institution incarceration of women is laid bare, and grisly serial murdering is slowly detailed.Yet in this discursive narrative, Eastwood indulges himself beyond Jolie's annoying crying by gratuitously laboring over the details of an execution. The stark San Quentin setting is ghastly and the villain worthy except for the film's obvious criticism of false mental institution lockup, ironic here because this murderer is clearly deranged enough to be determined unfit for trial.As in every Eastwood production, the values are first-rate, in this case period costuming and vehicles (those Model T's and trolley cars are beautiful). As in Mystic River, Eastwood knows how to splice family and community together in the struggle against organized crime, from street violence to public service malpractice. The activist preacher Reverend Briegleb (John Malkovich) helps bring the worlds together in his radio broadcasts, Malkovich for once playing good well. Eastwood continues to be the director of choice for depicting crimes and heartaches that strike the common citizen at will. We all should be as productive in our later years. May he extend well beyond his golf-playing days and into our future.
Get me a changeling to watch this....
posted on 02 Aug 2009I went seeing this movie with a rather biased mind. After all an Oscar screaming picture with Angelina Jolie and Clint Eastwood as a producer really must be something. And i was right, it is something....very bad. I can imagine that some people like it, but they probably are stomped flat by all typical American Hollywood screamers. The bland and totally out of place looking Jolly does a terrible job, and the extreme clichéd scenes are piece by piece cut like todays society and covered with a 50's sauce. A bad tasting one that is. The plot is just terrible and shamelessly clichéd in the extreme. I don't see why the makers went through with this and never noticed.Don't go see this movie,it's a complete waste of time and will probably lower your IQ.
too richly filmed for telling of terrible, real events
posted on 02 Aug 2009i am about a 50-50 fan of C. Eastwood's directorial style, and The Changeling fell on the not-so-much side. it was ambitious, had great material to work w/, but i blv it succumbed to the temptation of overly-drenched cinematography and way too pretty costuming and set, especially for such a dark and real subject. it does the actual events a disservice by emphasizing so overtly stylish costuming, veiled eyes, bright-red lipstick, sepia-toned police rooms and craggy-faced character actors. just too obvious and heavy-handed. i root for Eastwood as a director, but he can rely too heavily on stylistic conventions, which detracts from getting involved in a story. A. Jolie's acting did not help, either. This can point to weak direction, but in any case, i just don't feel that she delivered on a true, raw level. it was all rather clichéd and superficial. frankly, she has never lived up to the potential she showed in "Girl, Interrupted" (in which she was the only good thing, and deserved the Oscar), and has excelled only as the cartoony, action-figure Lara Croft since then. maybe she should just leave it at that. and maybe Eastwood should stick to fiction.
A truly Great Film and a Great Cast Too.
posted on 29 Jul 2009I just saw Changeling and I have to say that the movie is very good. I think that Clint Eastwood did a good job directing the movie. The movie star Angelina Jolie, Michael Kelly, John Malkovich , Colm Feore, Jeffrey Donovan, Jason Butler Harner, and Geoff Pierson. The cast a great job in the movie. The movie is based on true events that took place in 1928. The movie is about is about a boy Walter Collins who goes missing on March 10, 1928 and Christine Collins who is trying to find her son. When the La Police Department tells her that they have found her son only to get there and find out that the boy they found is not her son and the police department trying to convince her that the boy they found is indeed her son. The movie deals with the corruption that was going with the police department at the time. This is a movie that you will be talking about soon after the credits roll. Both Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich really shine in this movie. They both should get Oscars for their performance in the movie.
Brilliant Performance From Jolie , Eastwood Has Done It Again!
posted on 29 Jul 2009Every actor /actress whether there good or bad has one role there remembered for. Well this is without a doubt Angelina's. She is sensational.The story is great and true which always makes for a much more interesting watch. It hards to believe at times something like this could have gone on and happened but it did.Eastwood portrays the story as only he could and with all round great performances it nails it!.One of the best things i found with the film was it was so unexpected. Ever plot twist they throw at you , you never see any of them coming. It's quick off the mark and leaves you guessing up until the last second it really has been a while before this since i was so hooked to a movie.Do you need more reason/s to see this film? But there's more. Not only is it great to watch but it looks great. It always amazes me how they make the props/set up for these films look so 30's Los Angeles. It's completely believable and so non fake it's hard to believe what your seeing.It's another one for me that i now relate the story to the film. When i think Johnny Cash i see Jauqin Pheonix because he was so great and believable i almost forget he's not Johhn Cash. Samefor all the actors involved in this one. I straight away think of this film.Overall what your getting is a great film with a great (true) story and the performance of a life time. Definitely top 250 worthy and it's great to finally see it climbing up there!.Also look out for John Malkovich in an equally great role.My Rating : 8/10
Changeling's Shifts Will Try Your Patience
posted on 28 Aug 2009From ISawLightningFall.com - Stories, like people, have all sorts of different shapes. Some are short and lean, others long and muscular. Then there are a few -- pardon my political incorrectness here -- so flabby and shapeless that they ought to have a go on the Nautilus for a while. The Clint Eastwood-directed Changeling falls into the last category.Based on actual events from the late 1920's, the film centers on Christine Collins, a single mother from California whose son, Walter, mysteriously disappears from their home one day. After months of searching, the Los Angeles Police Department produces a boy to much fanfare -- only he isn't Walter. When Christine's pleas fall on deaf ears, her plight gets taken up one Gustav Briegleb, a fiery Presbyterian minister who has made it his goal in life to root out civil corruption.Some of Eastwood's dilemma comes from the complexities of history: The Walter Collins' case was far-reaching and multifaceted. Still, narratives require redaction, even the most factual, and here the film doesn't know its head from its tail, changing genre as often as a surgical nurse does gloves. What starts straightforwardly enough soon moves toward political-protest territory before shifting into a paranoid thriller and then becoming the most grisly kind of crime story. (I'll hold back on further revelations, but the inquisitive could look up the history of Mira Loma, California, if they want spoilers.) It ends -- mostly -- as a courtroom drama, but not before subjecting viewers to at least four pseudo-climaxes and then denying them a coherent resolution. This exercise in frustration reminds us that stories do best when assuming a single shape.