Clint Eastwood directs Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich in a provocative thriller based on actual events: "The Changeling".
Changeling is a hard-hitting but inspiring movie with a bold performance from Angelina Jolie - her best yet in my opinion!
Some films are less than the sum of their parts but as long as there are some very good parts you can still end up with a film worth watching. By the end of The Changeling there is the nagging feeling that this should have been an outstanding film rather than merely a very good one. All the elements are there with Angelina Jolie fiercely independent yet thwarted by the corrupt system, John Malkovich's pastor initially ambiguous but becoming surprisingly sympathetic as the battle against injustice pans out and a brilliantly unsettling performance from Jason Butler Harner as a deeply disturbed yet oddly vulnerable killer. There are some excellent performances in minor roles from children as well as adults and a moving tale to tell. Despite the powerful story however, several strands play out in frustratingly unconvincing ways, not least the swiftness with which a mother accepts the wrong child and the child's ultimate reasons for playing along. For all Clint Eastwood's experience some of the blame must be directed at him for the uneven feel at a few key moments: some things are rushed, others too laboured. Perhaps the most serious miss-step is to show a hanging in such graphic detail when less would have been so much more.
The Changeling is frequently very good rather than consistently compelling but the elements of this story and quality of the cast deserved so much more. Like the Irish accent employed by Jeffrey Donovan's police captain, you feel there are too many flaws to feel fully satisfied.
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Clint Eastwood's CHANGELING follows closely in the footsteps of his earlier Oscar winner, MYSTIC RIVER. Both films in fact centre on a missing child and can boast a dark, minimalistic yet enthralling atmosphere. But while MYSTIC RIVER was based on a Dennis Lehane novel, CHANGELING carries a particular weight because it is inspired by a true story, and one that isn't largely known. Angelina Jolie stars as Christine Collins, a single mother working in 1928 Los Angeles, when her son goes missing. A boy is returned to her months later by the police, but she is shocked and disheartened when she realizes that the boy isn't her son. Joined by a crusading pastor (John Malkovich), Christine battles for justice against the corrupt L.A.P.D. while she continues to search for her child.
Clint Eastwood directs this thriller based on true events that took place in 1920s California. Angelina Jolie stars as Christine Collins, a mother who thinks her prayers have been answered when her kidnapped nine-year-old son is returned to her. However, she quickly realises that the boy with whom she has been reunited is not in fact her son. She must now face a corrupt police force and a seemingly immovable legal system to continue the fight to find her own son. Slandered by the press as unstable and delusional, she eventually finds an ally in activist Reverend Briegleb (John Malkovich), who helps her take on the authorities and track down her missing son.
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