Changeling Movie Review

Based on the true story of the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders, Changeling is a visualization of a woman's worst nightmare and a mother's most deeply held fear. Powerful, cruel and provocative, Changeling would have brought me to tears if it did not stir such deep and lasting anger.

Single mother Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) was called to work and had to leave her son Walter (Gattlin Griffith) home alone. When she returns, she cannot find her son. She called the police who informed her that they would not take the missing child report for 24 hours. After filing the report, the police do little to find Walter for several months. Trying to fight the bad press they had been receiving, the Los Angeles Police do something so unabashedly cruel, their deed cannot be undone. When Christine tries to struggle back, Captain J.J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) and Police Chief James E. Davis (Colm Feore), torture her emotionally and also physically. Rev. Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich) rages against the police department on his radio show and takes on the cause of Walter Collins and fights for Christine Collins. One brave police officer, Detective Lester Ybarra (Michael Kelly) changes everything.

One of the most important, disturbing themes of Changeling is the systematic dismissal of women because of their irrationality. Even today men, dismiss women as overly emotional creatures and as such, dismiss what they have to say as irrational babble, whether they are right or not. Changeling takes the (still existent) misogynistic viewpoint to such an extreme, things a reasonable person would say she is the authority on, is disregarded as if she was wearing a tin foil hat and yelling about mermaids. I left the theater with a sore jaw from a clenched mouth and with nail marks in the palms of my hands from the tension of my curled fist. The only time during the movie I relaxed my hands and jaw is when I nearly broke into tears.

Angelina Jolie and writer J. Michael Straczynski make Christine's situation pitiful without making Christine pitiful. Together Straczynski and Jolie give Christine such a regal dignity, even in the most undignified situations. Even though Jolie's acting does get weak from time to time (during close ups), as the movie progresses, she sinks into the character, making her more complex, distinguished, vulnerable, and resonating.

Straczynski forms all the characters with the same sensitivity and complexity he did Christine. All of the actors enrich the writing with performances that left the audience disturbed and enriched. John Malkovich feels smarmy in the beginning, and made me wonder if he would be a villain or a hero. By the end of the movie, Malkovich has made the answer unambiguous and profound.

Much of the movie relies on child actors to make important, gut wrenching connections with the audience. The almost fourteen year old, Eddie Alderson, who plays Sanford Clark, one of the most important characters in Changeling, makes Sanford deep enough for the audience to submerge themselves in the quality of his performance.

Changeling does not rely only on the writing or the performances, it is a visual spectacular. Dark but smooth, Changeling uses visuals to express the mood of the story adding another layer for the audience to peel away.

My one complaint about Changeling is the quality of the music. Director Clint Eastwood missed the mark, using music that sounds cheap, familiar and cliché. Violins scream through the sad scenes. Piano comes in to accompany the violins for longer scenes. The music actually detracts from the quality of the story.

Clint Eastwood ties together most aspects of the movie that the real Christine Collins would probably be proud to see on the screen. When we watch this story, we should do our best to remember that these events happened to a real woman. This is her real story.

Christine's struggle broke my heart with a tearing sadness and fused it back together with searing fury.

PS. I want to know where they got the hats in Changeling. Jolie's last hat must be mine!