A surprising disappointment

Rating: 6/10 (8 November 2008)

No one involved in this project has anything to prove. The assembling of such talent pretty much assures a positive outcome, yet, there's something missing here, and what's missing is crucial. The director focuses on the surfaces of this story and everything seems glazed and frozen. Particularly, Ms. Jolie who brought such passion to "A Mighty Heart"; she never convinced me of the desperation a mother must have felt in this situation.
But the real fault is in the screenplay by J. Michael Straczynski which has to incorporate some pretty sensational material that the viewer constantly wants to reject. At least 40 minutes of the entire running time of this film incorporates a second story that is absent in the previews. That story belongs in a genre of films like "Se7en" or "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." While I'm a big fan of horror films, I was unprepared for where this story went. All the facts here are documented by court and police records, yet as presented it's too fantastical to believe. And given the care of the elements in art direction, it's easy for the viewer to remain focused, say, on how carefully Ms. Jolie's elaborate make-up is applied.
Eastwood is capable of masterpieces. "Million Dollar Baby" is a film that any director would have been proud to have his name on. Throughout his career he's been surrounded by the perverse and the extreme, and "Changeling" seems only an excuse to wallow in the perverse and the extreme.
It's too bad, because the material, in the right hands, would have been electrifying. This, however, is only tedious with a few sequences that show promise, then we get the death thoes of someone shoved in our face while Ms. Jolie stands and looks beautiful; and, we wonder what on earth the character must be thinking (and where on earth is the director besides fussing with some period detail).