Featured Review: CHANGELING

Changeling

Starring - Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan, Amy Ryan, Colm Feore, Jason Butler Harner, Michael Kelly, Geoff Pierson

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Grade: B

"I want my son back! I want my son back!"

Watching the details so intricately placed in Changeling, I began to notice something. So we have standardized the telephones since the 1920s. We've standardized refrigerators, cars, public transportation, cereal boxes, arrest warrants, and mental institutions. So now, have we standardized award movies?

Changeling turned into what invariably happens to several films of its caliber every year; it went from a good film that otherwise would be an engrossing period biopic, into a forgettable "award" movie. The entire production is full of pedigree that screams from its every ounce of life that it wants to be a big contender come February's Oscars. However, it lacks the true gumption and risk some of the best movies ever made had to deservedly get there.

Angelina Jolie stars as Christine Collins, a single mother in the working world of 1920's Los Angeles. When her son Walter goes missing during an emergency shift at the Pacific Telephone Company, Christine is soon embroiled in hardships and controversy with the Los Angeles Police Department, a devious and corrupted lot led by Captain J.J. Jones (Burn Notice's Jeffrey Donovan). They give her a different boy, send her to a mental institution, subject her to a serial killer's dementia, and out and out lie and underhand her plight. The only humane person it seems is Reverend Gustav Briegleb, a radio pastor who uses her to highlight the treacherous police force.

Unlike the flappers we've seen in Chicago, Christine is an honest, hardworking woman active in the retro society dominated by men and corruption, just touching as a precursor to the equal rights and power women would fight for decades later. The title doesn't necessarily invoke the change in Christine's "son", but rather the strength she acquires through her ordeals. Jolie is very strong at purporting this, mixing a shy, trampled demeanor with a little bit of "We Can Do It" slogan spirit as her terrible circumstances go on through the years. Since the Best Actress category is always a little weak, Jolie seems to be a shoo-in to get a nomination.

Other performers vary, but all are adept. Jason Butler Harner is as outstanding as he is creepy playing Gordon Northcott, a demented, abusive, but almost child-like Canadian serial killer involved with Walter's disappearance. Amy Ryan is subtly good as a "woman of the night" Christine meets in the mental ward, as is Malkovich as the reverend out for justice, a rare restrained role for him. Only Jeffrey Donovan, struggling to rid himself of his New England accent, seemed a bit stiff.

The biggest problem I had with Changeling as a complete film was the same I had with David Fincher's Zodiac last year. Both biopics were definitely watchable with an invigorating cast and a sharp story, based on true-to-life serial killer cases and the people involved on the investigative side. But like Zodiac, Changeling drew back from any prestige with a procedural feel and too many subplot elements distracting away from the heart of the story, which Eastwood chose to make about the plight of Christine Collins.

Eastwood's direction is deceptively simple, which is both a positive and negative. His style invokes an old school Chinatown feeling (both films are about power and corruption in Depression-era Los Angeles), with pinpoint accuracy of the styles, colors, models and fads of the time. However, it's done to such a fault that Changeling plays like a straightforward period movie, without much suspense. There's some ambiguity within the context of the story, but Eastwood piles everything together in such a simple manner that the film tends to drag on during the times when the acting isn't being put on showcase.

Changeling is by all accounts a good film; solid acting, swift direction, and the pace was steady enough to stay alert and comprehensive throughout. But for such a lofty pedestal it placed itself on, Eastwood and company failed to trigger a real emotional reaction. When a film wants to puff itself up as an award worthy film, it has to fire on all cylinders. Instead Changeling went through all the motions of a forgettable award movie.