Review of Changeling (2008) by Harry W — 27 Dec 2014

Directed by Clint Eastwood and scoring Angelina Jolie an Academy Award nomination, Changeling sounded like it would be an interesting film.

Changeling consistently goes back and forth between the focus of protagonist Christie Collins suffering at the loss of her son and the penalties she faces afterwards and the focus of J.J. Jones and how he is dealing with her and the kidnapping of her child. The story manages to focus on both aspects of the story well and points out how they each contribute to the context of the story, but it means that the film is focused on the middle picture. The film does not focus on the characters and particularly how Christie Collins suffers as a result of the events in the story which means that whatever depth in the film comes from the performance of Angeline Jolie in the role, yet the film does not focus on the bigger picture either and therefore has little relevance to how these events affected the exterior town. It ends up focusing essentially on two central characters without focusing enough to get into the depth of their minds, and so it demans a lot from the actors without supplying them the best script. The language in the film is fine, the script just doesn't supply the most deep characters to the film despite the grim nature of its subject matter.

But aside from not being as deep as it could have, Changeling was a powerful film. The drama of the film was exceptional because of the way that it balanced focus on an oppressed woman in society dealing with the loss of her son against corrupt officials abusing their power to silence her and lie to the public. It is a kind of drama that I have seen touched upon before but never to such a complicated extent. Changeling explains how the corrupt authorities damaged individual people so harshly, particularly women who were forcibly silenced when attempting to make a change. Changeling strongly depicts the suffering and heroism of Christie Collins within an unfair society, and the pure strength of the drama is powerful because it easily depicts the harsh reality of the situation. Clint Eastwood injects a powerful atmosphere into the film to depict the nihilistic nature of society and the careless nature of the authorities in the story of Christie Collins which leaves audiences with answers about society and yet with more questions about the story. Changeling raises a lot of points and explains them well with a strongly crafted script, and so it is a powerful example of storytelling from director Clint Eastwood who proves time and time again to be able to handle the emotional power of a story with true tenacity as a filmmaker.

Visually, Changeling is terrific. Capturing the time setting of 1928 Los Angeles, Changeling is full of convincing scenery and a strong production design which reinforces the nature of the time setting and the location of the film. The costumes the characters wear also reinforce this and give viewers a sense of the time which feels very legitimate, and it is all captured with very nice cinematography. The visual plane of the film has a certain feel of monochromatic grey to it on a consistent basis which establishes a grim feel. But the most powerful aspect of the film is the leading performance of Angelina Jolie.

Angelina Jolie has never given a more powerful performance than her leading role in Changeling. I consider her a bit over an overrated actress, but I found a new level of respect for her after witnessing the endeavour of her acting skills in Changeling. Angelina Jolie involves herself deeply with her role in Changeling and makes a very sympathetic figure for the lead part which is very admirable as she projects a lot of powerful vulnerability which means that the emotional power of the film ends up striking. Her performance is exceptional and is so firm with how it deals with the powerfully hard hitting nature of the story that it is difficult to walk away from Changeling having not been mesmerized. She perfectly fits the profile of the 1920's setting because she has a face which matches the style of beauty that was popular in the time, and she goes into the role with serious depth. Angelina Jolie captures the frailty of her character with physical acting to exceptional extents and she delivers her lines with such emotional power that it is pretty shocking. Angelina Jolie gives a performance of clear Academy Award calibre in Changeling and it is so amazing that it is hard to walk away from it not feeling the pure strength that is the endeavour of her acting talents.

Jeffrey Donovan is also terrific. In a nice change of pace from his performance as Michael Westen in Burn Notice, Jeffrey Donovan takes on the leading role as corrupt police officer J.J. Jones in Changeling which has him turn in another powerful performance. The thing is that Jeffrey Donovan keeps his performance strong by consistently maintaining a level of sophisticated professionalism in the part and he rarely lets his emotions get the best of him because as a police captain he cannot let his own personal bias affect how people see him. Jeffrey Donovan takes on the part well because he never directly expresses an antagonistic nature in the role and it therefore makes him a manipulative figure. Jeffrey Donovan is a great casting decision in Changeling.

John Malkovich also turns in a powerful supporting performance by putting his natural charm and determination into their part. Jason Butler Harner does a tense job as well, and Amy Ryan shares some strong scenes with Angelina Jolie.

So despite the fact that Changeling goes for the middle ground and does not end up as deep as it could have been, it is a powerfully grim film which benefits from tense direction from Clint Eastwood as well as an amazing leading performance from Angelina Jolie in the best work of her career.