Review of Changeling (2008) by Mike S — 03 Nov 2014

The Los Angeles Police Department was considered to be corrupt and incompetent in 1928. The police thought they'd scored a public relations coup when they found a 9-year-old boy who'd been missing for over 5 months. But the boy's mother, Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) said the boy they found wasn't her son. She made this claim so often, the police locked her up in a psychiatric ward, without a warrant or court order. This Clint Eastwood-directed film dramatizes this true story, which is bound up with that of a serial killer who may have abducted and killed the Christine's real son, along with several other boys.

This period film unravels the various threads slowly. This is a mystery and a police procedural, except some of the police procedures are brutal and misogynistic. Jolie gives an excellent performance as the working-class but intelligent mother who only wants to know where her real son is. The introduction of the serial killer sub-plot seemed a bit obvious and contrived (as a phone call to the police station while Christine is there to ask once again for the police to continue searching for her son). But the two plots are connected; as one of the DVD's special features said, if this story weren't true, you'd never believe it.

This is a long and slow-paced film driven mainly by dialogue. It is riveting and well-made, but some may find it overlong and slow. The performances and the look and feel all feel authentic to the period.

In a modern era of revelations about government surveillance and abuse of power, this story tells us that, perhaps, this is nothing new. People in positions of power will often abuse that power to retain it. And they'll convince themselves they're doing it for our benefit. Collins shows us, however, that, perhaps with a little help from influential supporters, abusers will eventually have to face the the fact that they cannot alter the truth forever.