Review of Changeling (2008) by Christian H — 08 Oct 2010

Unlike "The Children of Huang Shi", which I recently watched and briefly reviewed, "Changeling" has the look and feel of a historically accurate film. Indeed, J. Michael Straczynski, creator of "Babylon 5", claims that when writing the script, he kept « very close to the facts. » However, as always, it is always good to make a few checks before taking the film as gospel. Some of the surprises I had were that (SPOILER) child murderer Gordon Stewart Northcott committed his crimes with his mother, Sarah Louise Northcott, who only served twelve years in jail (she is not even mentioned in the script) ; both mother and son initially confessed to the murder of Walter Collins and later retracted ; Gordon Northcott was not tried in Los Angeles ; the institutionalised prostitute, Carol Dexter, is actually a composite character ; electroshock therapy was first introduced in the 1930s and gained widespread use as a form of treatment in the 1940s and 1950s, so it couldnâ??t have been used in 1928 ; Christine Collinsâ?? husband was serving a jail sentence for armed robbery, which slightly mitigates the policeâ??s distrust of her ; and though police bad guys Captain J.J. Jones Jones and James E. Davis were indeed dismissed (one of the triumphal moments of the film), both were later reinstated.

The film is quite powerful and moving, though of course disturbing as it involves intense scenes of child abuse and murder, and the heroine goes through quite an ordeal herself. The score (composed, though not orchestrated, by Clint Eastwood himself) is beautiful, but I wish it had been a little more varied (I only noticed two themes.) One thing I found particularly well done was the way in which psychiatric lingo was used against the main character. On the one hand, she was deemed unbalanced for being "unemotional, cold and aloof", but whenever she manifested emotion, she was categorised as hysterical. I wonder whether the interview with the psychiatrist was based on a famous job interview in "Monty Pythonâ??s Flying Circus". It almost felt like something the British comedians could have written in a more Orwellian mood.