Friday, April 10, 2009

Changeling (2008) R - 4½ Stars

I really loved this amazing movie. Angelina Jolie is so great at evoking emotions playing the mother of a kidnapped boy. She really does a great job at making you feel like this nightmare is really happening to you the viewer. Set in the late 1920's and based on the true events of the corruption at the Los Angeles Police Dept., that almost drives one mother insane, when the wrong child is forced upon her after her child is abducted.

Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), kisses her young son Walter (Gattlin Griffith) goodbye and heads off to work. Upon returning home, she finds Walter is no where to be found. Her panics leads her to the streets calling out his name and eventually to the Los Angeles Police Dept. She files a missing report but her life will never be the same. Months go by and no word about Walter's disappearance until one day the police have a young boy claiming to be her child. This is just what the police need to boast their morality in the public eyes and they invite the press to capture the reuniting of the two. But when Christine looks at the boy, she's sure he's not her son. And even though the boy claims he is Walter, Christine notices differences but is assured that after all these months away, she's still in a semi shock over his return.

Christine and Walter return to her home where the more they interact, the more she is sure this is not her son. He doesn't measure up to the marking on the wall her and her son made every year. But no matter how hard she tries to convince the police this is not her son, the more they pressure her into not making the police department look foolish. Christine is unwilling to except the fact her real son is no longer being looking for and the only one who seems to believe her story is a local radio activist, Reverend Briegleb (John Malkovich). She may never realise how lucky she is to have him on her side.

Awards:
2008 - Changeling - Women Film Critics Circle - Adrienne Shelly Award
2008 - Changeling - Women Film Critics Circle - Best Movie About Women

Universal Pictures
Director: Clint Eastwood
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Producers: Robert Lorenz, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer
I viewed 3/09

3 comments:

Anh Khoi Do said...

This a film that I liked a lot. However, while the film focuses mostly on Christine's point of view, it would have been better if the script shows us what went wrong during the investigation of five months. By that way, it would have allowed us to see what really made the LAPD corrupted. In other words, I thought that the presentation of the LAPD's corruption was one-sided.

Despite that, the performance by the cast was so outstanding! Congratulation for Angelina Jolie and also the supporting cast (I think about Amy Ryan and Michael Kelly)!

Atirakih said...

I agree the movie was very good and Angelina Jolie really did a great job.

Anonymous said...

I agree. There should have been more about the police department and why they were so corrupt. None the less, great movie and acting.