Just Not Good Enough Clint and Angie.

Rating: Null/10 (18 May 2009)

Changeling is a reasonably well written and well made movie, but personally I don't think it's one of Angelina Jolie's best performances and I'm not certain she was truly Oscar-nomination worthy for this. (She didn't win.) Normally I'm an Angelina fan, but I couldn't warm to her in Changeling at all. The cast includes John Malkovich, Michael Kelly and Colm Feore, all of whom are good within the limits of fairly one dimensional characters, but there was something about Jolie's persona in this movie that I just didn't find believable.
Perhaps she has reached that unfortunate stage where she is just such a big deal in the media, so often plastered all over the internet and the gossip magazine covers, that it's hard to suspend belief and allow her to sink into a character. In the morning, while standing in line at the grocery store, you idly read about her marriage to Brad, in the evening you try to believe in her as a devastated 1920s mother. Tom Cruise has reached a similar stage for me; I just look at him and think "Oh yeah, that's Tom Cruise in a costume" Which is a pity because he's not a bad actor either.
I've loved Jolie in many other movies, I thought her performance in A Might Heart for instance, far superior to this. I also liked her in that popcorn flick Wanted, because in a film of that nature, it doesn't matter that she's a media babe. But for me this movie was all about Angelina Jolie in a costume, not about Christine Collins, the character she was trying to portray on screen.
Ms Jolie looked stick thin even by her usually skinny standards, almost to the point of emaciation, with huge rouged lips which dominated the screen in every shot she was in, emphasized by her skeletal appearance. I just couldn't take my eyes off her mouth, which may well have been the director's intention but it ruined the movie for me. Angelina has two gestures in this film; eyes brimming with tears or her hand attempting to cover her mouth. I found the gestures over used, and no substitute of good acting. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but I've seen her give much better performances and I think she was miscast.
Directed by Clint Eastwood, the script is based on reality and deals with both the disappearance of a child in 1920s Los Angeles, and the corruption of the city's police force at that time. It's certainly an interesting story and well worthy of telling. When her son Walter goes missing, single parent Collins (Jolie) is understandably frantic with worry. Days, then weeks and finally months go by with no word, then finally a child of the right age turns up in Illinois and the police bring him home. The LAPD arrange a big photo op at the train station, to help their flagging public image, damaged by accusations of corruption at the highest levels. But the child isn't Walter, and Collins says so, vociferously.
The police will not admit they have made a mistake and try to convince Mrs Collins that Walter has simply changed because of his long absence. How, she wonders, can he have shrunk three inches? How come now he is circumsized? But the police employ a psychiatrist to refute Mrs Collins assertion that the child is not Walter, shifting the blame onto her (thin) shoulders and trying to label her reaction 'feminine hysteria'. Hysterical women were a popular theme back then, with us girlies labeled as too unstable and hormonal to hold down serious jobs. Women had, after all, only just gotten the vote. It was the word of an emotional mother against the might of the LAPD, and the latter won. Collins was shunted off to a psychiatric hospital for a strip search and examination and held against her will for some time, alongside some genuinely disturbed people and many rather clichéd stereotypes, such as the Tart with a Heart. We also see the Unfeeling Brutalized Ugly Nurse and the Macho Doctor Who Can Never Be Wrong.
Eventually, aided by Malkovich's crusading Pastor Briegleb, Collins is released. The truth comes out about the 'son's' identity when the bodies of many small boys are revealed at a desolate country farm after a police investigation into an illegal immigrant. Arthur, the substitute son admits he just wanted to get to LA to meet cowboy Tom Mix. But Walter is still missing, presumed dead.
Vindicated, but still dedicated to finding her lost child, Collins takes part in the subsequent trial of the killer and the clean-up of the corrupt police force, but never really achieves resolution about Walter's fate. To her death, she still hopes he is alive. It's a tragic and poignant story, yet at no time did I ever truly believe in it. All I ever really saw was Angelina and that mouth. Sorry, not a winner for me. You can do better Angelina. You can do MUCH better Clint.