Multi-faced addition to Eastwood's oeuvre.

Rating: 9/10 (7 February 2009)

As a cinema addict I just wish some directors were granted immortality as an accolade for their genius gifts to the world. In the same way I'm mad at Kurt Kobain, Ernest Hemingway and Edgar Allen Poe for instigating their own premature deaths, I'm mad at The Almighty himself for allowing the greats to perish. The Hollywood old timers strike me as only refining and honing their skills as the hourglass empties. Lumet's aptitude, at age 84, showed again in the uncompromising masterpiece 'Before The Devil Knows You're Dead' and here Clint Eastwood proves he's still sharp as a tack at age 78. Eastwood, not in the least as a result of his role in the 'Dirty Harry' series assumed to be extremely conservative, surprised friend and foe in 2004 with the truly remarkable euthanasia drama 'Million Dollar Baby'. Here the symbol of cool and machismo parents a feminist movie.
'Changeling' lends itself excellently for analysis as it's a movie with many faces. First it's a character drama, second it's a political thriller laying bare some sensitive veins of the LA police department, third it's a courtroom drama and fourth, some scenes remind us strongly of 'Mystic River', it's a crime thriller centering around the notorious Wineville chicken murderers. Luckily for us, Clint uses almost 2.5 hours of celluloid to tell the complicated story so every arch gets the attention it merits. I'm positive Eastwood had the studio breathing down his neck during post-production, any film over 2hours runtime is by definition less suitable for promotion, luckily for true and patient movie fans like us here on IMDb Clint Easwood has the courage of his convictions.
The movie opens with a short tracking shot sketching a '20s middle class neighborhood, accompanied by a delicate, elegant tune, composed by Clint Eastwood himself. He earlier brought forth a remarkable, moving score for 'Grace is Gone' last year. First the picture's completely b&w and then the colors slowly drip in, still leaving a pretty bleak color look at the end of the opening credits. Christine Collins (portrayed by Angelina Jolie) and her son wake up and start their run-in-the-mill Saturday. However, an emergency causes her to have to rush back to work for a short while; meanwhile her young son gets left home alone. Her work ends late and when she returns home she finds he's nowhere to be found. In a state of panic, she calls the police and to her astonishment they don't take her cry for help seriously at all. Months go by until finally the notoriously corrupt and unscrupulous L.A.P.D claim to have found the boy. When she reunites with him at the train station, another unwelcome surprise awaits namely the boy is not her son.
Hungry for positive press coverage, they manipulate Christine's mother instinct ('the boy has nowhere else to go') into taking the boy 'home'. Several inches shorter and circumcised, the kid is obviously not hers but the stubborn LAPD possesses immense powers (they're judge, jury and executioner) and when Christine insists on renewing the search for her son, they bend the rules to declare her insane. I have not scratched the surface of the compelling true story here but my space is limited. Needless to say, the story's unlike anything you've ever seen - I can't recall a movie dealing intensely with police corruption since L.A. Confidential - and the cast's performances do justice to it.
Jolie's Christine Collins is complex - the actress is not afraid to throw her whole acting weight into the heavy scenes but understates the rest of the time(surely by Eastwood's advice)- a good-natured woman with no ulterior motives, no message to spread or agenda to push, as she states multiple times: 'She just wants her son back'. Jason Butler Harner, introduced late, steals the film as the disturbing, hell-fearing child killer, the rest of the cast also hand in great work (even though Jeffrey Donovan's Irish accent fails hilariously).
'Changeling' makes for another excellent addition to Clint Eastwood's oeuvre, whose multiple faces will make it pleasing for many demographics, a sure-fire new classic. It establishes Eastwood and Jolie once again in their status as two the most redoubtable in the business.