Review for Changeling(Angelina Jolie,John Malkovich)

I'll be the first to admit...when I saw the previews for this movie I was not thoroughly impressed.I wouldn't even call it marginally impressed.If movie previews could make a man fall asleep,that would have been the one to do it.Then Ron Howard and Clint Eastwood flipped the script and surprised me with what turned to be a very good movie.


WARNING:this is a full review,if you don't like spoilers don't read past the first second paragraph.

The movie takes place in early 20th century Los Angeles.Angelina Jolie plays a single mother in the film(I'm guessing being a single mom was much more of a social taboo back then than it is now).She works at a switchboard operating office as a supervisor.Being a single mother who assumingly doesn't have very much money between making house payments and supporting her son Walter,to pay a babysitter.

The story starts to unfold relatively fast,which is hard to believe if you look at the running time for this film(somewhere around 2 hours 45 minutes).Christine and Walter are supposed to spend a day together going to the movies until her boss calls and pleads with her to take a shift at the switchboard operations center.After minutes of deliberation she agrees,much to the shagrin of her young son who had his heart set on the movies.Side note-If I had nothing else to do at home but sit in front of a radio and stare at it,I would probably be pretty angry..Walter takes it like a champ though.Christine prepares young Walt a sandwich and a glass of milk and tells him that she will leave it in the fridge for him,and that a neighbor will be by to check on the house and him periodically.

Of course if you've seen the previews to Changeling you know what happens next.Young Walt disappears.Vanishes into thin air.Christine rushes home after missing her trolley because her boss was informing her that she had just earned a promotion.When she does arrive home she searches frantically for her son who is nowhere to be found.She informs the police of her missing 9 year old and naturally they tell her to stop worrying,because they have better things to do.Brilliant policing by the LAPD,I tell you what.

Christine decides that she has to take matters into her own hands and later with the help of a pastor played by the brilliant John Malkovich,they set off to find the missing boy.What happens next comes as a surprise to them...not to mention me.The police inform Christine that a young boy has been found and that he matches the description of Walter,her missing son.Overjoyed she rushes to the train station with the Chief of the LAPD and the press,who have made sure that her story is in the headlines.The boy that greets Christine at the train station however is not her son.Of course the police have many explanations to why she isn't able to recognize him,citing lack of food,a shrunken spine and severe trauma that could have altered his appearance.

After agreeing to give the situation a few days to work itself out Christine decides that the boy is not hers,just as she thought. An LAPD captain in charge of Christine's case then determines her to be an annoying pest who has gone crazy and doesn't lover her son,so he does what any good policeman would do.He throws her into the psycho ward(note the sarcasm in that last sentence).A psycho ward which happens to be filled with only women.I'm not sure if back then the men and women had to be seperated but judging by the treatment given to the women in those facilities back then,seperating men and women was probably the least of their concerns.

A week later John Malkovich comes to the rescue of Christine just as she is about to have her brain half melted with electro-shock therapy.In the following days they hire the best lawyer in Los Angeles and manage to get all of the patients diagnosed with similar "conditions" to Christine released. While all this is going on, a second investigation is being started.A young Canadian boy had illegaly crossed the border and was staying with his uncle on the man's chicken farm.It turns out the man was not only butchering chickens he was butchering little boys as a hobby.What a pleasent story this is turning out to be right?To make a long story short,the boy ends up confessing to the murders of at least 20 boys and despite initial doubts from the officer he was talking to,the boy guides him to a shallow grave filled with the bones of all these boys.The LAPD informs Christine that they think Walter was among the boys killed.Was he?What happens at the end of the movie?Go watch it and find out!

Clint Eastwood did a really good job with this movie.Besides Malkovich and Jolie,the film was lacking any real star power.There are several actors that are familiar to the eyes but no headliners.That being said,the acting was amazing.By the end of the movie I felt like it was my son that ran away and I dont even have pets,much less children.I do think the movie was drawn out a little more than it needed to be,but it also left me with a lot of unanswered questions.I'm not a big fan of open ended endings so I give this movie a solid 4 out of 5."Changeling" may not change lives and alter the course of the universe,but you'll second guess leaving your kids to play in the park while you sit on a bench and read the newspaper.


It should be noted that when I first saw the previews,like I said before I was expecting a snooze fest,so a 4 is a large improvement over the 1 I thought I was going to give it.