Arizona Reporter - Movie Reviews - 17/10
Changeling - Strongly Feminist Drama
By Harvey Karten (AZR) - We may be in for a return to the classic films of bygone days—classically done without fancy surrealism and manic shifts with hand-held cameras from the present to the past and back again. "Changeling," one such film, brings to mind Olivia de Havilland's role in Anatole Litvak's 1948 melodrama "The Snake Pit"—in which de Havilland's character, Virginia Cunningham, finds herself locked into an asylum for the insane without a clue about how she got there. "Changeling," which deals as well with a woman improperly detained as are several others of her gender, deals with the true story of a woman who becomes a feminist without consciously meaning to do so, part of the movement that dates back to the first women's rights convention in 1848 at Seneca Falls, New York. Ironically, or perhaps the better word would be paradoxically, "Changeling," a strongly feminist drama, is directed by Clint Eastwood who used to be as macho as they come but now knocks out a women's story on the heels of his 2004 entry, "Million Dollar Baby"—about a manager determined to coach a woman intent on becoming a major boxer.
CHANGELING
Universal Pictures
Reviewed for Arizona Reporter by Harvey Karten
Grade: A-
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Written By: J. Michael Straczynski
Cast: Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan, Michael Kelly, Colm Feore
Opens: October 24. 2008, wider on October 31, 2008
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"Changeling" is one movie that's going to capture the attention of the awards people, given its stellar starring role by Angelina Jolie as a distraught mother with strong support from Jeffrey Donovan as a police captain determined to make her go away. The picture is delightfully old-fashioned in its treatment of a true story that began in Los Angeles in 1928, and stylistically conventional—and these are meant to be compliments. Truth has its own force without the need for wild experimentation.
The plot could be almost a sequel to Eastwood's stunning "Mystic River," about three men who come together when one loses a daughter. "Changeling" is as powerful a testament, though now to the perseverance of a woman despite radical steps to shut her up.
The title comes from a myth that would have fairies kidnap a youth substituting another in the victim's stead. In J. Micahel Straczynski's script based on the Wineville Chicken Murders in rural California, a ten-year-old boy, Walter Collins (Gattlin Griffith) is left alone for a while by his single mother, Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie). Since the year is 1928, telephone operators sat at long switchboards while Christine, a supervisor, literally skating around the floor handling calls that needed her assistance. When she returns home late, she finds her boy missing, her calls to the police receiving brush-offs because of a lack of "resources." Five months later, after being hounded by Christine, the police announce that her son has been found, though upon reuniting the boy with the woman, they find her insist that "This is not my son," which becomes an oft-repeated mantra of the suffering woman.
Despite the willingness of the Walter's teacher and dentist to testify that this substitute boy is an impostor, she is stonewalled until, finally, at the end of their rope, police captain J.J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) has her committed to an institution for the insane—which houses mainly political prisoners—those who challenged the status quo vociferously. A radio reverend, Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich), strongly takes up her case, which is not surprising since his sermons revolve largely around the corruption of the L.A. police department. The commissioner (Colm Feore) urged his men to deal with gangsters without mercy—mainly because organized crime competed with the pre-Serpico police department which has half of its members on the prostitution and loan sharking take. Cops commit machine-gun murders of the competition. Eastwood soon divides the film into two scenes—one a murder trial that has relevance to the missing person's case, another back to the campaign to find the lost boy and get some justice from a jaundiced police department.
Tom Stern's lensing takes in the period scene, capturing views of several antique cars, a city that, 80 years ago, looks more like modern Wasilla than Los Angeles. Somehow single mom Christine on the salary of a phone company supervisor, is able to chase down the cops in a fur wrap—and this in Los Angeles, not Wasilla. As stated, Jolie is Oscar-bait. Somewhere Brad Pitt is green with envy.
The plot could be almost a sequel to Eastwood's stunning "Mystic River," about three men who come together when one loses a daughter. "Changeling" is as powerful a testament, though now to the perseverance of a woman despite radical steps to shut her up.
The title comes from a myth that would have fairies kidnap a youth substituting another in the victim's stead. In J. Micahel Straczynski's script based on the Wineville Chicken Murders in rural California, a ten-year-old boy, Walter Collins (Gattlin Griffith) is left alone for a while by his single mother, Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie). Since the year is 1928, telephone operators sat at long switchboards while Christine, a supervisor, literally skating around the floor handling calls that needed her assistance. When she returns home late, she finds her boy missing, her calls to the police receiving brush-offs because of a lack of "resources." Five months later, after being hounded by Christine, the police announce that her son has been found, though upon reuniting the boy with the woman, they find her insist that "This is not my son," which becomes an oft-repeated mantra of the suffering woman.
Despite the willingness of the Walter's teacher and dentist to testify that this substitute boy is an impostor, she is stonewalled until, finally, at the end of their rope, police captain J.J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) has her committed to an institution for the insane—which houses mainly political prisoners—those who challenged the status quo vociferously. A radio reverend, Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich), strongly takes up her case, which is not surprising since his sermons revolve largely around the corruption of the L.A. police department. The commissioner (Colm Feore) urged his men to deal with gangsters without mercy—mainly because organized crime competed with the pre-Serpico police department which has half of its members on the prostitution and loan sharking take. Cops commit machine-gun murders of the competition. Eastwood soon divides the film into two scenes—one a murder trial that has relevance to the missing person's case, another back to the campaign to find the lost boy and get some justice from a jaundiced police department.
Tom Stern's lensing takes in the period scene, capturing views of several antique cars, a city that, 80 years ago, looks more like modern Wasilla than Los Angeles. Somehow single mom Christine on the salary of a phone company supervisor, is able to chase down the cops in a fur wrap—and this in Los Angeles, not Wasilla. As stated, Jolie is Oscar-bait. Somewhere Brad Pitt is green with envy.
Rated R. 142 minutes. © 2008 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online
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