Changeling
Thursday, 27 Nov 2008 15:42
Angelina Jolie stars as Christine Collins in Changeling
Directed by Clint Eastwood, out November 28th in cinemas, starring Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jason Butler Harner, Jeffrey Donovan, running time 141 mins.
In a nutshell...
Masterfully-made look at loss and justice.
What's it all about?
Based on a true story, Changeling tells of one woman's fight to challenge a corrupt, ruthless police department in the face of overwhelming odds.
When single mother Christine Collins' (Jolie) son Walter disappears, she entrusts the LAPD will do their utmost to find the boy. Five months pass and there is no sign of her nine-year-old until one day a child claiming to be Walter is found by police and foisted on Mrs Collins in a dazzle of cops, reporters and photographers before she has a chance to get a real look at the boy.
Well aware that this child is not her beloved Walter, Christine pushes the authorities to continue the search for her son only to realise that challenging those on high has only two results for women in LA - the asylum or death.
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Who's in it?
Just about the most famous woman in the world, Oscar and three-time Golden Globe winner Angelina Jolie (Christine Collins) made her breakthrough with her HBO portrayal of the late supermodel Gia Carangi. Her Oscar win for Girl, Interrupted came amid a spate of sex bomb roles for the Los Angeles-born actress (Pushing Tin, Gone in Sixty Seconds and… well… Lara Croft's not an
ugly character...) before meeting her future partner Brad Pitt while making Mr & Mrs Smith. She is expected to gradually scale down her acting roles while the Jolie-Pitt clan continues to grow.
Oscar-nominated John Malkovich (Reverend Gustav Briegleb) is famed for his intelligent, thought-provoking work in a distinguished 20-year body of work while Jason Butler Harner (Gordon Northcott) and Jeffrey Donovan (Captain JJ Jones) are best known for their TV roles.
Director Clint Eastwood has combined one of the most iconic Hollywood acting careers - enshrined in movie history through characters like 'Dirty' Harry Callaghan and The Man With No Name - with sterling work behind the camera. His most recent Oscar nominations came in 2006, with Letters of Iwo Jima named in the best director and best picture categories, in both of which he'd been victorious the year previous, with Million Dollar Baby. From Bird to Unforgiven and Mystic River - Eastwood's films are archetypal Oscar bait.
As an example...
"Yours is a story with a happy ending, Mrs Collins. People love happy endings." - Captain JJ Jones
"I've made it my mission in life to bring to light all the things the LAPD wish none of us to ever know about."- Reverend Gustav Briegleb
"I used to tell Walter, 'Never start a fight... but always finish it.' I didn't start this fight... but by God, I'm going to finish it." - Christine Collins
"F**k you and the horse you rode in on." - Christine Collins
Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars
A certainty. Jolie seems a shoo-in to take home her second statuette while best director, picture and original screenplay nominations are also assured.
What the others say
"A compelling, adult period thriller, with an Oscar-assured performance from Angelina Jolie." - Damon Wise, Empire
"To see this film is to understand both how fragile and how essential our hopes for decency and truth are in a world that must be made to care about either one." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
"Despite Ms Jolie's hard work and Mr Eastwood's scrupulous attention, [Jolie's] difficult, fairly one-dimensional character fails to take hold."- Manohla Dargis, New York Times
So is it any good?
Stunning, more like. It's a stern task to find fault with the film. Eastwood's direction is again controlled and beautifully paced; a wry script from J Michael Straczynski translates a shocking true-life tale for the screen with verbatim quotes and without resorting to audience manipulation; and Angelina Jolie puts in a timeless lead performance.
It's certainly overlong and loses steam after Collins' eventual release from the insane asylum but these are mere quibbles with a film that again proves Eastwood as a truly great director. He veers between colour palettes, with a sun-bleached, Tobe Hooper-like camera during shots of a terrifying ranch, while a bleak and bereft look is used in the psychiatric hospital scenes as Collins' fate seems sealed.
To have created such an immersive 1920s world in modern-day Los Angeles is an achievement in itself with the production design and period detail as faultless as you'd expect from Eastwood. Supporting turns are excellent throughout with Harner diabolic as a serial killer while Donovan's police captain hides depths of evil behind his permagrin. And having been Oscar-nominated for her role in the similarly-themed Gone Baby Gone, Amy Ryan turns up in a frazzled little cameo during Collins' asylum incarceration.
But it's Jolie who will take all the plaudits and deservedly. This is a more human, more affecting turn than her previous Academy-pleasing work in Girl, Interrupted. The smeared makeup and eventual Bette Davis-esque histrionics that come as her quandary worsens seems a wholly genuine recreation of a mother suffering her greatest fear, rather than the most photographed women in Christendom having a crack at a bit of acting.
Frustration and fear pervades every frame and while this could easily have become a maudlin tale of overcoming adversity, it's inspiring, moving and through its authenticity, intensely powerful.
9/10
Lewis Bazley