A mother's pain

Rating: 10/10 (26 December 2008)

When Changeling was screened in competition at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, a lot of people assumed it was a lock for the Palme d'Or, given none other than Sean Penn, whom Clint Eastwood had directed to an Oscar with Mystic River, was the President of the Jury. Instead, good old Clint had to settle for a Special Award for the whole of his career. While this might not qualify as a proper award (in fact, it was made up on the spot so that he and the female winner, Catherine Deneuve, didn't leave Cannes empty-handed), it's a fitting tribute to a great filmmaker who, at the age of 78, shows no signs of tiredness or mediocrity, as proved by Changeling, another sober yet merciless look at the underbelly of American society.
The movie takes us back to that most cinematic of cities, Los Angeles, in the year 1928 (two years before Clint himself was born, by the way). The shockingly true story told here is that of Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), a single mother whose only concern is the happiness of her 9-year old son Walter. It's no surprise, then, that she almost loses her mind when he disappears without a trace. The real surprise, to the LAPD at least, is that she refuses to recognize the boy they bring back months later: he claims to be Walter Collins, and Captain Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) summons several experts to explain some of the visible changes (the kid is shorter, not to mention circumcised) in a logical way, but Christine refuses to believe those lies, and with the help of a priest (John Malkovich) who uses his radio program to publicly denounce the bad side of law enforcement she sets out to uncover the truth, no matter the cost.
Like most masters of today, Eastwood uses the period piece gimmick to really tell a story that concerns our present situation: in this case, as has often been done previously (see L.A. Confidential), corruption within the police and its effect on the general public. Changeling is also a different take on a broader subject - the inefficiencies of the justice system - Clint has handled many times before, as both a star (the Dirty Harry cycle) and a director (True Crime, Blood Work, Mystic River). He takes advantage of the setting to tell the staggering tale, brought to the screen by sci-fi and comic-book writer J. Michael Straczynski (of Babylon 5 fame), and it does in fact look like it had really been made in the late '20s or early '30s: the cinematography, in particular, is reminiscent of what he did with his WWII double bill, especially Latters from Iwo Jima, which was almost black and white. It was made today, but could just as easily have been produced seventy years ago (with the swearing removed, of course), and like most well told period stories it holds up perfectly in our times as well.
Then there's Jolie, who constitutes an entire chapter by herself: she was reportedly cast because she was the only actress who had that special something that defined movie stars during Hollywood's Golden Age (in fact, she was attached to the project before it even had a director), something which was visually enhanced with little but vital make-up. She returns the favor with a performance that exudes rare pain and power, a career-topping effort that is, for good reasons, earning her more Oscar buzz than any other actress this year. To say that this is her best work since Girl, Interrupted (for which she won an Academy Award) isn't enough: it is likely that with this and the equally difficult role she had in A Mighty Heart she may have reached the climax of her notable talent, which has been wasted in the past on crap like the Tomb Raider films. Needless to say, everyone else in the excellent cast pales next to her, which is probably why there's no other A-lister in the movie, minus Malkovich who turns out to be a very good choice thanks to his trademark old-fashioned, stage-like acting style.
Most people mellow with age. Clint Eastwood doesn't: after the likes of Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, he delivers another uncompromising, unmissable study of human behavior at its noblest (a mother's attempts to find her son) and at the same time most inhumane (the LAPD's reaction to Christine's "crusade")