Changeling (B or 3/4 stars)
Christine Collins' (Angelina Jolie) prayers are seemingly answered when she gets the news that her kidnapped son has been found. Amid a sea of camera-wielding reporters, she realizes (to her good horror) that this boy is NOT her son. Facing a corrupt police force, she receives some much-needed-help from LAPD-hater, Reverend Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich). Hunting for more answers than she bargained for, Christine is forced to face some horrifying truths about her son's disappearance. 'Changeling' (directed by Clint Eastwood) is a well paced, full-bodied, exquisitely mounted film. The art direction, costumes & editing is entirely commendable. But while Jolie does a respectable job in a difficult, atypical role ... I felt most of her supporting actors let her down. The labyrinthine plot (and the excellent way it is told) loses a lot of its effect because their theatrical-style acting took me right out of the moment, far too often.
The film opens marvelously with a sequence that sets the time, place & tone - Los Angeles, 1928. When we first meet Christine, a switchboard floor manager, she is a normal, loving mom to an adorable 9 yr. old Walter (Gaitlin Griffith). On one fateful Saturday, Christine returns home after a long days work, & finds that Walter has vanished. She does what anyone would do: call the police with the hope that they will help right away. Alas, they can do nothing until a 24 hr. waiting period is up -- typical. Deemed delusional & desperate by Capt. J.J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) and his corrupt department, Christine is thrown (yes, thrown) into a psychopathic hospital. After years of mishandlings, prejudices, & mind-boggling atrocities handed to Christine, she finally gets word of Walter's whereabouts.
Running parallel to the main thread of this story is one involving a serial killer named Gordon Northcott (Jason Butler Harner). A boy (brilliantly acted by Eddie Alderson) is taken into custody by Det. Lester Ybarra (Michael Kelly) and confesses that Gordon forced him to help kill some 20 abducted children on his desolate ranch (all of this is known as the 'Wineville Chicken Coop Murders'). One of these children 'may' have been young Walter. So the Christine Collins thread, the LAPD corruption thread, and 'this' thread merge to create a glum and numbing conclusion.
The contents in this movie (not the movie itself) made me angry. For one, I can't believe how corrupt the LAPD were back in the day. The more Christine Collins probed for answers, the more forceful the cops became. What we bear witness to is the unbelievable (in every sense of the word) prejudice that men had against women; and how submissive the women had to be. In as quiet a way possible (for a grieving mother), Christine tried to challenge the system. The result? Being thrown into an insane asylum. How humane. How could men treat women as such a mere 80 yrs. ago? HOW COULD THEY GET AWAY WITH IT? I couldn't believe that the only 2 people who seemed to have a conscience in this entire movie were Rev. Briegleb & Christine's lawyer (an excellent Geoff Pierson). It's just unfathomable to me that a woman would claim (with staggering evidence) that the boy living with her was NOT her son, yet no one would/could believe her. Whether they were corrupt, ignorant, or both ... it's an unforgivable, & unshakably discouraging look at 1920's humanity.
Jolie is very good here. But while I 'saw' her pain & sorrow, I did not feel it. Though she impresses, I actually found her more versatile & affecting in last yrs., A Mighty Heart. And she is not aided well by a majority of the supporting characters. I'm not talking about Malkovich (great as the crusading activist) or Butler as the diabolical, sniveling killer. I'm talking about characters in the police force, mental ward, & other various venues. I found what they said and how they said it to be excessively dramatic & overly affected. Because the acting was so bang-on in Eastwood's Mystic River & Million Dollar Baby, it disappoints me greatly that this stunning story was hampered (in my opinion) by over-the-top, caricature portrayals. No emotion was left ambiguous for the viewer. I found it very difficult to summon my own emotions at various scenes because the characters were doing it ALL for me; nothing was nuanced.
'Changeling' offers a riveting true story. But I didn't find the TELLING of said story to be as riveting. On a base level, the movie is good. But it is not directed nor acted as powerfully as Eastwood's previous works (where I was gut-punched by them). And while the film is historically accurate, I did not care for some cooked-up melodramatic moments (Rev. Briegleb barges into the psycopathic ward just in time. Hooray!). Visually, the movie IS stunning. The 2nd half is superior to the 1st, which always helps. Jolie holds her own at the epicenter of it all. But it says something that I found this existential story easier to shake off than expected. Subjective feelings aside however, it is truly remarkable to see how far we have come since 1928 in both investigatory techniques AND gender commendation.
The film opens marvelously with a sequence that sets the time, place & tone - Los Angeles, 1928. When we first meet Christine, a switchboard floor manager, she is a normal, loving mom to an adorable 9 yr. old Walter (Gaitlin Griffith). On one fateful Saturday, Christine returns home after a long days work, & finds that Walter has vanished. She does what anyone would do: call the police with the hope that they will help right away. Alas, they can do nothing until a 24 hr. waiting period is up -- typical. Deemed delusional & desperate by Capt. J.J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) and his corrupt department, Christine is thrown (yes, thrown) into a psychopathic hospital. After years of mishandlings, prejudices, & mind-boggling atrocities handed to Christine, she finally gets word of Walter's whereabouts.
Running parallel to the main thread of this story is one involving a serial killer named Gordon Northcott (Jason Butler Harner). A boy (brilliantly acted by Eddie Alderson) is taken into custody by Det. Lester Ybarra (Michael Kelly) and confesses that Gordon forced him to help kill some 20 abducted children on his desolate ranch (all of this is known as the 'Wineville Chicken Coop Murders'). One of these children 'may' have been young Walter. So the Christine Collins thread, the LAPD corruption thread, and 'this' thread merge to create a glum and numbing conclusion.
The contents in this movie (not the movie itself) made me angry. For one, I can't believe how corrupt the LAPD were back in the day. The more Christine Collins probed for answers, the more forceful the cops became. What we bear witness to is the unbelievable (in every sense of the word) prejudice that men had against women; and how submissive the women had to be. In as quiet a way possible (for a grieving mother), Christine tried to challenge the system. The result? Being thrown into an insane asylum. How humane. How could men treat women as such a mere 80 yrs. ago? HOW COULD THEY GET AWAY WITH IT? I couldn't believe that the only 2 people who seemed to have a conscience in this entire movie were Rev. Briegleb & Christine's lawyer (an excellent Geoff Pierson). It's just unfathomable to me that a woman would claim (with staggering evidence) that the boy living with her was NOT her son, yet no one would/could believe her. Whether they were corrupt, ignorant, or both ... it's an unforgivable, & unshakably discouraging look at 1920's humanity.
Jolie is very good here. But while I 'saw' her pain & sorrow, I did not feel it. Though she impresses, I actually found her more versatile & affecting in last yrs., A Mighty Heart. And she is not aided well by a majority of the supporting characters. I'm not talking about Malkovich (great as the crusading activist) or Butler as the diabolical, sniveling killer. I'm talking about characters in the police force, mental ward, & other various venues. I found what they said and how they said it to be excessively dramatic & overly affected. Because the acting was so bang-on in Eastwood's Mystic River & Million Dollar Baby, it disappoints me greatly that this stunning story was hampered (in my opinion) by over-the-top, caricature portrayals. No emotion was left ambiguous for the viewer. I found it very difficult to summon my own emotions at various scenes because the characters were doing it ALL for me; nothing was nuanced.
'Changeling' offers a riveting true story. But I didn't find the TELLING of said story to be as riveting. On a base level, the movie is good. But it is not directed nor acted as powerfully as Eastwood's previous works (where I was gut-punched by them). And while the film is historically accurate, I did not care for some cooked-up melodramatic moments (Rev. Briegleb barges into the psycopathic ward just in time. Hooray!). Visually, the movie IS stunning. The 2nd half is superior to the 1st, which always helps. Jolie holds her own at the epicenter of it all. But it says something that I found this existential story easier to shake off than expected. Subjective feelings aside however, it is truly remarkable to see how far we have come since 1928 in both investigatory techniques AND gender commendation.