Frequently harrowing story of police misconduct and corruption.

Rating: 8/10 (6 January 2009)

Not a remake of the 1980 horror film of the same name, nor yet a filmed version of Middleton and Rowley's Elizabethan play, this "Changeling" is a harrowing tale about one woman's struggle against police corruption in 1920s Los Angeles. Her quest for the truth is made doubly difficult by the fact that her young son has gone missing, and the police investigating what has happened to him are not conducting the search properly. This is a film about sensitive issues, dealt with tastefully throughout particularly during some of the more harrowing moments (which could so easily have been sensationalised).
Single mum Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) lives in the suburbs and works at a telephone exchange in the city. One day she has to work an extra shift and is obliged to leave her son Walter (Gattlin Griffith) at home. It is the last time she ever sees him. Upon returning, Walter has gone missing provoking Christine to turn to the police to find him and bring him home. Several months later, Christine is notified that a young boy matching Walter's description has been found. But when she is reunited with the boy she remains adamant that he is not her son. Already under intense criticism from the public, the police cannot afford another embarrassment, so they continually reject Christine's claims. In particular, Captain Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) takes great pains to convince her she is mistaken. When he cannot silence her, Jones has her shipped off to a cruel mental asylum where she can bother the police no longer. Then, out of the blue, honest policeman Lester Ybarra (Michael Kelly) discovers the remains of a bunch of murdered children, victims of a demented serial killer (James Butler Harner). The police learn that, through their own neglect, ineptitude and misconduct, they may have wasted precious time lying to Christine Collins while her son became the latest victim of this psychopathic madman..
Jolie is outstanding in this film, playing down her sexy image to give a very moving and heartfelt performance that is a million miles from the Lara Croft persona. Indeed the whole cast are excellent in "Changeling", particularly Harner's creepy child murderer and Donovan as the dirty cop who wants to wash his hands of Christine's problems. The film is deliberately paced and builds to a powerful climax, in which emotions of despair are tinged with a grain of hope. Perhaps one could argue that the film has too many climaxes, for it takes several scenes spread over the best part of 25 minutes for all the loose ends to be tied up. However, one does come away from the film feeling that the subject matter has been treated with the thoroughness and sensitivity it deserves by director Eastwood and writer J. Michael Straczynski. "Changeling" is a disturbing, powerful and worthy piece of cinema.