Changeling
The film has an unfortunate middle-section drag in its’ 150-minute running time, but that aside, Clint Eastwood continues his renaissance behind the camera that began with “Mystic River,” and now continues with “Changeling” (with another release, “Gran Torino,” not far down the road now). Matching him beat-for-beat in front of the camera is Angelina Jolie, who hasn’t been this electrifying to watch onscreen since her Oscar-winning turn in “Girl, Interrupted.” Expect her to catch Oscar’s attention once again with her head-turning role here.
Jolie stars as Christine Collins, a single mother living in Los Angeles in 1928 whose son Walter goes missing when she’s unexpectedly called into work one day, leaving Walter alone. She calls the police immediately, but protocol dictates that they can’t fill out a missing persons report for 24 hours. That’s just the first in a long line of BS slung her way by the L.A.P.D. and Captain J..J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan, who was born looking like a man with something to hide) as days turn to weeks, and weeks turn to months. Five months later, the LAPD have a lead on a child matching Walter’s description. But at the long-awaited reunion, Christine can tell immediately that this isn’t her son. That doesn’t prevent the much-maligned LAPD from getting her to pose otherwise for the press, which is just the first deception in a long-line of them by the police, who do everything possible to get Christine to play ball. That’s her son, she’s told again and again. But what’s to explain his shrinking three inches, or his doctors and teachers not even recognizing him?
Police corruption is the storyline of J. Michael Straczynski’s powerhouse screenplay (an unlikely outing for someone best known as the creator of “Babylon 5”)- which is based on a true story- but the soul is Christine’s fight for the truth. Eventually, local pastor Gustav Briegleb (the superb John Malkovich, a man of God whose political fight against corruption via his radio show feels more empathetic than self-motivated) helps her bring the case to light, and a house of cards looking to hide the truth falls. But Christine’s struggles remain front-and-center, most emotionally at a mental institution she’s thrown into by Jones after she goes to the press. There, she befriends a hooker locked away as well (“Gone Baby Gone’s” Amy Ryan, matching her work in that film vitally), who convinces her not to give up. Answers arise when a serial killing of children is stumbled upon by the police in an unrelated matter, but the truth alludes Christine for the longest time.
But her hope makes her strong. Not one known for revolving his directorial projects around strong female characters (Hilary Swank’s Oscar-winning boxer in “Million Dollar Baby” was an exception), Eastwood- who also composed the film’s compassionate and mournful score- nonetheless has an uncanny knack for it. His gifts with actors is displayed in full force in Jolie’s performance. He knows that the best actors, you let them do the work onscreen and they won’t disappoint. See past Oscar wins for Swank, Morgan Freeman, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, and Gene Hackman under his watchful eye. Here, Jolie earns back her status as a live-wire talent after years of tabloid exposure and unworthy escapist fare. She takes Collins to the breaking point, and you root for her every step of the way. A scene at the end which provides some insight into what her son went through also provides some closure, although she never gave up hope of seeing her son again.
An oft-repeated line by Christine in the film is, “Never start a fight… but always finish it.” That same fighting spirit is championed by Eastwood and Jolie, and it’s the beating heart of a film that could’ve been just another L.A. crime story.
