Very odd and not in a good way!

Rating: 3/10 (27 March 2014)

Having heard good things about this film and read much about the background to the case I watched 'Changeling' with high hopes. The film opened well, wonderful attention to detail and an unearthly quality which I felt added tension and unease to the film. In fact, unease was my overall reaction to this film. This unease might have been positive, in that it was engendered by the unpleasant deaths of the children or the suffering of Walter's mother or that of the 'patients' at the institution. However the unease was I think caused by the oddly detached performance of Jolie and the clinical nature of the CGI and sets. Everything appeared as though shot through a thick slice of glass. The main, very obvious fault with this film is one neither cast nor director could hope to fully overcome. That is it's breadth. It attempts to cover aspects of the abduction and murder of children by a serial killer and his trial and execution. The systematic mistreatment of patients in an institution. The (undisclosed) relationship between a radio preacher and whistle-blower and the mother of the abducted child. The corruption endemic in the LAPD during the period and it's treatment by the press and eventual prosecution. Unfortunately the film doesn't venture in any depth into any of the above themes, it merely scratches their surface. Without doubt, I would have liked the film to concentrate near exclusively on Collins and the pastor and the ambiguous nature of her search and their relationship. Two further things omitted from the film were Collins culpability, having left the child unattended and secondly the glaring absence of any father or extended family. Perhaps if Eastwood had narrowed the films scope, combining that with the ambiguities inherent in the story and the claustrophobic camera work a more satisfying product may have emerged. Despite it's many faults this films' oddity, if anything serves as a mild recommendation, even if the complex story behind it proves more interesting.