Reviewed by Neil Davey
Stars Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Gattlin Griffith, Michael Kelly, Jeffrey Donocan,
Colm Feore, John Harrington, Jason Butler Harner, Amy Ryan, Devon Conti | Written by J Michael Straczynski
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £24.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 142 minutes | Directed by Clint Eastwood
This powerful true tale, of a single mother fighting for justice for herself and her missing son, should help to shut up anyone who’s still of the opinion that Jolie’s career is based on her more obvious physical attributes. That’s part of it, but she has the chops to back up the lips. Unfortunately, her blistering performance is the best thing in Eastwood’s faltering Changeling and you’ll be longing for something to balance it long before the end credits.
Jolie is Christine Collins, a supervisor at the LA telephone exchange in 1928. Christine is devoted to her son Walter (Griffith). She’s dedicated, hard working – and ripped apart when he goes missing. Five months later, following a nationwide search, the police reunite her with Walter. Only it’s not Walter. It’s a boy claiming to be Walter. The LAPD, desperate for some good PR at a time they’re being justifiably lambasted, refuses to accept Christine’s word, calling in medical experts to explain how this new lad could be shorter than the real son, or suddenly circumcised. When that doesn’t shut Christine up, they have her thrown into a psychiatric ward.
At this point, you’ll be railing at the injustice, and blown away by the story, Eastwood’s direction and the period detail. Shortly afterwards though, with the discovery of LA’s worst ever serial killer (Harner), what should have continued to be a great story of injustice and a woman fighting for her rights, turns into fine upstanding citizen versus psycho out of central casting. Many of the problems lie with the script. Jolie does what she can but has sides that apparently repeat “he’s not my son!” every 30 seconds or so, and that’s possibly the best dialogue in the piece. Eastwood also drags out the ending, milking the emotion and tugging on the heartstrings, an irrelevant, unnecessary gesture for a director of his calibre, particularly when couple to a story so gut-wrenching.
EXTRAS ***½ There are three special features that all involve the "U-Control Interactive Experiece", and all involving behind-the-scenes stuff that can be set to pop-up while you watch the film. The first is Picture in Picture - with a click of the remote, you can access interactive cast and crew interviews and behind the scenes footage. There there's Archive - images and documents from the period that reveal the real-life individuals and story in the film. And finally Los Angeles Then And Now, in which you can explore the visual history of LA. There'salso a "My Scenes" feature which let's you collect clips of the film and share them online through BD-Live (though wouldn't that violate copyright) plus a couple of featurettes: Partners In Crime - Clint Eastwood And Angelina Jolie, which is a look at the script's genesis, Eastwood's approach to directing and the production design; and The Common Thread - Angelina Jolie Becomes Christine Collins, which is a profile of Jolie and the real-life inspiration for her character in the film. A good package, but commentary from Eastwood and Jolie would also have been welcome.