It's "A True Story". I don't know if they mentioned that.,

Rating: 9/10 (11 July 2013)

There is one thing which the posters for Clint Eastwood's "Changeling" are very keen to tell you. It's "A True Story". Not "Based on a true story" or "inspired by real events". It's all true. And it's really strange watching the film knowing this, as it all seems so unbelievable. We follow Angelina Jolie as Christine Collins, a woman whose child goes missing, and her quest to find her son when the police are corrupt and not trying to help at all. The strangest part of the narrative is the fact that it keeps going to new places. One minute she's protesting against the police, then she's at a mental hospital, then they're finding dead children at a ranch, then it's a courtroom drama. Despite so many changes of pace and style, the movie never feels hard to follow or dull. It always keeps you interested, longing to find out what really has happened to Walter Collins. It also makes you think a lot about the corrupt police department, and the horrors of such a thing existing.
Angelina Jolie gives an incredibly emotional performance as Christine Collins here, and we really feel for the character and see her grief constantly. We hope for her to find her son so much, and that level of connection is definitely down to Jolie's acting. The scene when Collins first sees the "changeling" child is particularly gripping, and her clash with the head of the police department is proof of her great acting ability. Another great performance here is given by Jason Butler Harner as the psychopath Gordon Northcott, as we witness the insanity of the character. It was strange for me watching this on the same day that I saw Hitchcock's "Psycho", as there are definite parallels in the performances by both Harner and Perkins as psychos.
Eastwood once again proves his incredible ability as a director and the movie is also very visually stunning, with amazing CGI cityscapes. It's also very gory, which came as a shock 80 minutes in after what was a fairly tame first act. Northcott's murders and Jolie's time at the mental institution are both very difficult to watch at times, and this does help with the realism of the story. There are many points during the final act when the film could easily come to a close, but unlike "Lord of the Rings", each further ending feels necessary once it's over. I thought the choice to keep Collins' search perpetual and say that she "kept looking for her son" was nicely ambiguous, continuing the sense of hope for all of the optimists in the audience.