Some quibbles but still a brilliant movie by Eastwood.

Rating: 9/10 (27 May 2009)

Clint Eastwood doesn't do happy endings. For the last half-hour of the movie or so, he strung my emotions out hoping against hope that he would go against tradition but no. Gah. And yet, like his best works of late, Changeling is an amazing watch.
Set in the 1920's, a single mother loses her son only to find herself saddled with a boy the police claim - no, insist - is her son. When she actually stands up to them, they denounce her and eventually lock her up in a mental asylum.
I think the 20's must be a time alien to most viewers nowadays. I was quite annoyed with many of the movie theater's audience giggling at inappropriate moments. In this day and age, it must be hard to imagine how the police can be so overtly corrupt, and how women were supposed to know their place and remain meek and subdued. Admittedly, even I thought some of the events that took place bordered on the ridiculous.
What makes this movie not quite at the level of Eastwood's Mystic River or Million Dollar Baby for me are a few minor quibbles. The pacing seemed somewhat off for me: the initial focus of the movie was on how the mother and her missing child, but then it switched over to spotlight the kidnapper and his abettor, as well as their dastardly deeds, and then over to the corruption of the police and their subsequent exposure, all for a bit too long before returning to mom and her child. And while the last-hour of the movie was effective in that it was emotionally draining, it did get a bit trying how Eastwood would tease over and over as to whether he would reveal the child's fate or not.
The child actors could've been better. For the most part, I couldn't see their emotions on their faces, and everything they said seemed overly rehearsed.
And there's the refrain. Eastwood's scores for his movies usually sit fine with me, but here, whenever the music comes back in, it's always the same refrain, so much so that I had it stuck in my head even after the movie. A movie's score is supposed to be complementary, not annoying or distracting. But like I said, these are all minor quibbles that don't really affect how powerful the movie is.
With all the constant hullabaloo about Angelina Jolie and what she's up to, it's easy to forget that she really is a great actress, and this movie is immeasurably elevated by her talent. Right from the start, Jolie exuded maternal instinct - perhaps the most important quality for this movie - and convinced me of her dedication towards her child. In the next 2+ hours, Jolie's character would suffer torment after torment and yet she never fell into the traps of over-acting or melodrama. Not to mention she emoted everything as a 1920's woman.
I have to say that Clint Eastwood is my favorite still-living director today, even if all his movies are as depressing as heck. Here's hoping he stays around to make many more.