T;s NOT MY VIEW ASK Mr. HERMIT HE WILL KNOW ALL REVIWERS AND HE CAN TELL WHOSE TAKE IT IS Changeling is a challenging and appalling story;appalling for the fact that Los Angeles police could behave in such cruel manner, especially in the case of a distraught mother desperate to find her missing 9-year-old son.
The case eventually led to changes in the law and to the sacking of senior police, as well as the end of the then Mayor’s political career. She brings every ounce of motherly love and pain to a role that requires her to be worried for much of the film. She also brings dignity to Christine that grows as her suffering grows. Changeling is unforgettable for its impact. This heart-rending story could only be true, so bizarre are the elements - a missing child, a mother’s unyielding love, corruption, manipulation, murder.
Eastwood pushes the villains, Jeffrey Donovan is arrogantly evil as Capt. Jones, who seems devil of humanity as he tries to defend the police force in unacceptable ways; Colm Feore, as his superior, is equally inflexible to push the dirt under the carpet, with no regard for justice or for Christine.
Also excellent and hatefully so are the actors playing amoral doctors supportive of the corrupt cops, Denis O’Hare as the psychiatric hospital’s nasty piece of work, Gerety and John Bland.John Malkovich brings his considerable authority to the role of the crusading preacher whose stage is armed with a radio station microphone that rails against the corrupt and sadistic cops who run Los Angeles like some crime gang might.
The muted colors, the simple but effective period design and the plot driven editing grab our attention and our emotions with a firm grip as Eastwood tells the story from Christine’s point of view. The trauma she suffers is almost realas it pours off the screen; but Eastwood makes sure this is not just melodrama about a missing boy.
It’s also a well argued reflection of the people who ran a system that was self serving to the point of being evil. And these were men who had the authority to be bullies, ignoring their responsibilities to protect. Eastwood’s handling of the crucial scene in which the police take Christine to the railway station to be reunited with her missing son only to discover it is not her son, is perfect, making us as troubled and uncertain as the distraught mother. Ugly issues of police corruption, the horrors of forcible custody in a psychiatric institution, the unexpected support of an activist minister (John Malkovich) and a childish runaway lock our attention as
the powerful and disturbing story unfolds.
The ghostly beauty of Jolie wearing a cloche and hungered lips counters Christine’s strength as she demonstrates her will to ’Never start a fight, but always finish it, ’ a sentiment she used to tell her son
Walter (Griffith). Cinematographer , paints his muted palette suggestive of thetimes, punctuated with splashes of color (like Jolie’s lips) as beacons of hope. Eastwood’s sweetly melancholy music meanwhile, comforts our souls. A devastating and touching story, beautifully told by a filmmaker still at the top of his game.
Jolie does have something, that above-the-title star quality, and she expertly shows it off in this true-life crime melodrama directed by Clint Eastwood, boasting massive emotional scenes, colossal performances, gigantic courtroom climaxes and a pretty hefty running time of two hours and 20 minutes.
For all its eccentricities and oddities, it is gutsy storytelling.This is a picture with tremendous period detail and a muscular way with telling a story and this quality is never to be taken lightly. The digital recreations of Prohibition-era Los Angeles are terrific and there are moments when it looks like Eastwood has managed to get his cast and crew into a time-machine.
The very fact that his film seems to morph from one genre to another is a measure of how unusual this story is. It certainly keeps the audience off balance;there are plenty of surprises. the movie keeps a strange lid on the proceedings, and repeatedly deploys a sugary musical theme underneath to say tous.
Eastwood socks it over. He handles a big, long picture with directorial calm and strength, and Jolie’s performance has the same qualities, along with intelligence and dignity. Simply, Changeling has the considerable advantage ofnot looking like everything else around. What a bold, virile, operatic piece offilm-making from this 78-year-old director. He is now well into a remarkable late period, and I sense we ain’t seen nothing yet.