Excellent - very gripping

Rating: 9/10 (4 December 2008)

After overcoming my disappointment that this wasn't a sci-fi extravaganza, I quite happily toddled along to Changeling, having been initially intrigued by the trailers, and then by what I'd read in the press. This is a very good film, and packs an even bigger punch by virtue of the fact that it is essentially true.
Produced and directed by Clint Eastwood (who also does the music), and written by J Michael Straczynski (a name probably best known to date for writing Spider-Man comics), the heart of the story may be well-known now to people reading about films - in 1928 Christine Collins' young son Walter disappears. Some 5 months later she is reunited by the Los Angeles police department with a boy they say is her son, but who is not. Her continued refusal to accept the son who has been thrust upon her is a major inconvenience to the LAPD who have her put in the psychopathic ward of a mental hospital. You can get this much from the trailers, but the film then goes on into other areas which I had not anticipated.
I have heard as a criticism that the movie is slow. While I would agree that Eastwood never feels he has to hurry to tell the story, my attention was always held. The period detail always convinces, the music (by Eastwood) is attractive and serves the on-screen images nicely, and the script, while always gripping, never gives the impression that it is over-dramatising real events (although this may well be the case).
But what of the performances? Angelina Jolie has already received much acclaim for her performance as Christine Collins and she is, indeed, very good, managing to convey the desperation any mother would feel in such a situation mixed with confusion at being somewhat out of her depth, and bewilderment at the perverse attitude she encounters at every level of the establishment. John Malkovich, as the anti-LAPD clergyman who supports Christine chews rather less scenery than one is accustomed to see him chewing of late.
And this is where it becomes interesting. I've been watching films for nearly 60 years now and, apart from Jolie, Malkovich, and Colm Feore as the Chief of Police, I had never seen a single one of the cast on screen before, as far as I can recall. And they were, without exception, first rate, although I must single out Jeffrey Donovan as police Captain Jones, Michael Kelly (looking like a dark Steve Martin) as Detective Ybarra, Jason Butler Harner as Gordon Northcott, and young Eddie Alderson as Sanford Clark for special mention.
This film was gripping and unusual, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.