Foker's Movie Review ‘Changeling’ - Five stars (From Surrey Comet)

Foker's Movie Review ‘Changeling’ - Five stars

2:13pm Friday 5th December 2008

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I had seen the trailers on TV for this movie and also read an article about the actual events that took place. However, I was not sure what to expect from Clint Eastwood’s screen adaptation. I can sum it up thus…Brilliant, emotional, powerful and somewhat disturbing.

Angelina Jolie stars as Christine Collins, a single Mother in 1928, who has quite an ordinary life in a Los Angeles suburb. She works as a supervisor in a Telephone Exchange staffed entirely by women, apart from her immediate boss who reminds Christine what a good job she is doing and that rarely does the company let a woman take on such a responsible position. I must say though, this is the job I want. She spends all day as support for her staff while ‘swooshing’ from each ‘plug pulling’ switchboard to another on roller-skates!

While covering for a sick member of staff instead of spending the day with her son Walter, who is left home alone. She arrives home late in the evening to discover that he has gone missing and after a frantic search of the local district she phones the Los Angeles Police Department only to be told that they cannot take action until he has been gone 24 hours. In the meantime we have the city Reverend Gustav Briegleb (superbly played by John Malkovich) who preaches the word of the Lord via his radio show, and his mission in life is to bring down the extremely corrupt LAPD.

The LAPD do eventually put out a search for the boy mostly because they realise that this is a good opportunity to get some positive PR. They produce a young lad who answers to the name of Walter Collins and admits that he is the missing boy and that he had been taken and held by a vagrant. The scene in which the slimy Police Captain (Jeffrey Donovan) breaks the good news to Christine is a bit reminiscent of how they do it in the X-Factor. As my daughter said, rather than getting to the point the news is prolonged as long as possible with the recipient desperate to know how to react, ‘is it good or bad!’ However, when the Captain reunites her with her only child, Christine declares that ‘He is not my son’ a phrase you hear constantly throughout the movie. I think that the majority of Mums in the audience would be angered by the stubborn attitude of the Police. How dare she question the authenticity of this boy especially as the Police have the opinion of medical experts (although one suspects they are on their payroll?) who have concluded that this is indeed her son and what does she know? She is only the boys Mother! Despite the fact that this boy happens to be three inches shorter than her son.

Christine’s only ally is the Reverend Briegleb who follows her plight and broadcasts to the public with regular updates and the continuing incompetence of the LAPD. It’s about half way through the film when events take a sinister turn and when Christine starts to bite back and talk to the press, the police respond by taking drastic measures. It turns out that they have the power to incarcerate her into a mental institution with the click of the fingers (not for the squeamish).We also discover a whole new storyline involving missing children and a serial killer chilling played by Jason Butler Harner, a very disturbed and creepy young man. I was also surprised that it is only in the last half an hour that we experience the court room scenes.

Now if Angelina Jolie and Clint Eastwood do not get nominated for an Oscar each, I’ll…I’ll start supporting Arsenal! In fact there should also be a few supporting role nominations as well.

Everybody in this movie puts on a great performance. I especially liked the character Detective Lester Ybarra (Michael Kelly) who discovers the morbid secret at the chicken ranch and seems to be the only decent cop in the LAPD. The film is about two hours and twenty minutes long but everyone at this preview was glued to the screen all the way through and you could have heard a pin drop. I think at one stage I got a bit of grit in my eye and you know how dusty these cinemas can get?….what? I’m only human you know.

This may not be to everybody’s taste, particularly not for the faint hearted but I urge you to go and see this film.

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