Changeling

Angelina Jolie stars as Christine Collins whose nine-year old son vanished from their Los Angeles home in 1928. She met with little cooperation from the police, and when they finally found the boy and brought him back home, she said, "That's not my son."

This movie was based on a true story and directed by Clint Eastwood in a gritty, no-frills style. There isn't a lot of action, but it definitely holds your interest until the very end. Jolie gives a strong performance as the mother who wouldn't stop looking for her son, even when she battled the corrupt police chief. Jolie is on-screen just about every minute and is a formidable screen presence. She and the rest of the cast, including John Malkovich, are all good in this very somber and intense piece.

The costumes, sets, and locations are perfectly done in 1920s style and the photography uses a lot of natural light adding to the old-fashioned feel. The movie about a mother's love and police corruption is fascinating, but it's also relentlessly grim and left me feeling quite depressed. A well-made movie, though.

Changeling is a gripping movie for adults - 'manna for grown ups' as one reviewer rightly called it. Angelina Jolie turns in a terrific performance as Christine Collins, a demure single mother in 1920's Los Angeles whose missing son becomes a rallying point for the oppressed citizens of LA, suffering under the boot of a ruthlessly corrupt police force and mayoralty.

But as Christine struggles with an impostor son that a disinterested LA police force has preposterously tried to fob her off with as her own there's a big twist when another young boy is arrested in a routine deportation case and does he have a story to tell. A tale so horrifying that it would instantly qualify as any parents worst nightmare. When I saw this film in the cinema the packed out audience gasped - literally gasped out loud - during the confession scene between this kid and the police officer.

Jolie has never been quite this good and though she stays commendably in character as a demure mother who doesn't want to make a fuss, she brings a fantastic larger than life movie star presence to her role that she seems able to turn on and off at will. She's a terrific actress in the body of a goddess and watching her evokes so much of the spirit of a Rita Hayworth or a Joan Crawford in their luminous prime. But she's not the only star here. One of the great pleasures of Changeling is watching so many unknown character actors given the chance to strut their stuff and, boy, do they take it. So take a bow Jason Butler Harner as Gordon Northcott, Eddie Alderson as Nothcott's in-fear-of-his-life nephew, Jeffrey Donovan as a pig-headed Oirish cop and Michael Kelly as seemingly the only honest policeman in LA. They're all fantastic.

The script is just as outstanding, moving effortlessly from one genre to another - part period crime thriller, part psycho ward drama, part serial killer movie, part courtroom procedural. It begins small and then expands to take in political corruption, the status of women in the 1920's, the way children and adults view the same event, and the satisfaction (or not) of capital punishment. What's most impressive is the way Clint Eastwood orchestrates all of this because Changeling shifts gears so smoothly that one remains completely transfixed, indeed amazed, throughout.

Changeling represents a notable development in Eastwood's evolution as a filmmaker. Never before has he handled such a sprawling, multi-stranded story with such ease or confidence.

There's also a real sense of anger as Eastwood leaves us in no doubt how he feels about the way Collins - and the other female victims of the pernicious Code 12 which allowed the police to toss anyone they disapproved of into the madhouse - were treated by the authorities. Indeed, the endless parade of true life stories in which police and social services are found to have victimised single mothers in order to cover up their own incompetence means that Changeling carries a genuine contemporary resonance as a cautionary tale.

Amazon's editorial review suggests the film goes on to long and sags in the final stretch. I couldn't disagree more. In fact I think this is one of the best edited movies I have seen in a long while. The multiple storylines and shifting emotional moods are so well captured by Joel Cox and Gary Roach's editing that they deserved an Oscar nomination in themselves. The technical aspects are also top notch throughout and how pleasing it is to see a period piece in which the sets and costumes never once overwhelm the characters or the story. Eastwood's lovely score is the icing on the cake.

Changeling was the first of two masterful Eastwood movies in 2008, the other being Gran Torino. Both come highly recommended for those hungering for movies the way they used to make 'em (and I mean that in the best possible sense).

Angelina Jolie gives a storming performance as a single mother, in 1928 Los Angeles, whose 9 year old son goes missing. This is based on a part of the true story of the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders, and not "based on" in that slightly tenuous way that's rife within Hollywood - it pretty much chronicles the way it happened, down to the minor details.

The Los Angeles Police Department back then was corrupt, but not in the way we understand corruption in this day and age. They were crime lords, in control of prostitutes and drugs, and the Chief of Police created a unit called the "Gun Squad". Essentially, a group of machine-gun toting animals who openly murdered anyone who was competition, and did so while wearing the badge - no fuss no muss, no investigations, no questions asked.

So when this very dangerous, very corrupt police department organise a very public reunion between Christine Collins and her son, and she sees that the boy in front of her isn't her own, where can she turn? The rest of the movie attempts to answer that question. It fails, though. Not because the movie fails, but because the system - such as it was - failed in 1928.

When her child first went missing, she was met with indifference and red tape by the authorities; she was left to wander the streets looking for him for 24 hours. It's unimaginable given today's culture and response when it comes to the safety of our children.

We're used to seeing scenes where the house is filled to capacity; police file in and out constantly, the FBI comfort the parents while tapping the phones, and Family Liaison Officers stay 24 hours a day to lend support. That's what we're used to, and that's what we expect, so to see her completely alone, unable to get people's attention, is a genuine shock to the system. By the same token, today we have DNA testing, independent review boards and investigations into corruption within statuatory bodies, sexual equality where women are no longer the overly emotional "little lady"... and seeing how different it was then, how different it would have been for this woman, is truly awful. And when you see her having to share her home with this stranger instead of her child, it makes you feel claustrophobic and trapped on her behalf.

The film is *beautiful* to look at. The colour green features heavily, and most scenes are flooded with natural light (both of which very cleverly add to the feeling of disorientation and panic because if we're not safe when it's green, and wide open and in the light, when are we safe?) Equally, LA looks stunning - the 20s was a beautiful period aesthetically, and Clint Eastwood (he directed) absolutely revels in it. It's sumptuous - a visually awesome example of a rotting core beneath a sublime exterior.

But despite its beauty, Changeling is bleak, and cold, and a degree of hopelessness will stay with you for a long while after the credits have rolled.