I was unfamiliar with the Christine Collins Story prior to watching this film.  After watching the trailers for the past few weeks, I was eagerly anticipating the release of this film.  I was further intrigued upon learning that this film was based on a true story.  At nearly two and a half hours, this latest film from Clint Eastwood was a bit slow, but equally profound.  It did not quite reach the level of Schindler's List which left me stunned and disoriented, but that eerie silence was evident as viewers slowly funneled out of the theater.  Eastwood did a phenomenal job of conveying this story.

Changeling reveals the story of Christine Collins, whose son Walter turned up missing in 1928.  Collins is notified by the Los Angeles Police that they have found her son and escort her to the train station amongst a throng of media.  Collins immediately rejects the notion that the child is her son which angers the Police Department.  They try to convince her that her son has changed and the separation has caused her anxiety.  She is asked to take the child home on a "trial basis."  Collins quickly discovers that the child is shorter than her son and is circumcised.  The Police Department dispatches a Psychologist who further belittles Collins into her own delusions, insisting that the child is hers.  Collins begins publicly challenging the Police Department and finds herself committed to a Pschotherapy Institution where shock treatment was still a common method of treatment.  While these events are unfolding, a police detective stumbles on a serial killer in Wineville (now called Mira Loma as a result of the negative publicity).  This discovery casts doubts on the police investigation regarding the Collins boy.  The resulting investigation causes public outrage at the Los Angeles Police Department resulting in public hearings and an overhaul of the department.  In order to preserve the integrity of the story, I will leave the speculation regarding Collins own son up in the air...you will have to watch the film to find out more.

Because this story was a true story, the writer (J. Michael Straczynski) was limited in terms of plot.  However, developing characters and writing dialogue in a period piece are where the challenges lie in this film.  Straczynski did a great job of taking historical characters and bringing them to life.  His characters were well developed and interesting.  The 1920's dialogue was different at times.  Because I am not an expert on the era, I certainly cannot disclaim any of the language in the film, but it appeared that they did their research.  Another strong aspect regarding the writing was the development of the storyline without getting bogged down in details.  Now that I have seen the film, I looked up the story on the internet to find out what really happened.  There were a few differences in the true story which I would chalk up to artistic license.  I believe the story was streamlined a bit, because at two and half hours, the story was already thick enough without adding more plot lines.  Although the movie progressed slowly at times, it wasn't necessarily sluggish and the gripping story unfolding was worth waiting for.

Do not read this paragraph if you have not yet seen the film:  One of the interesting items that was not delved into in this film, which I will add here as a bonus concerns the Northcott Ranch.  The killer, Gordon Northcott, was living on a ranch owned by his father.  In the movie it is portrayed as vacant other than Northcott and his nephew who is held at the ranch against his will.  It appears that in real life, this ranch was occupied by the Northcott family.  Gordon's father incestually molested his sister who was still in Canada (the place where he is arrested in the film).  Gordon was a product of that incest.  So the woman who lived at the Ranch that he believed was his mother was actually his grandmother.  So, in essence, it is his own mother/sister who turns him into police when he arrives in Canada.  Collins does not believe her son Walter was killed, but in real life, Northcott's grandmother testified that she killed the boy and was sentenced to life in prison.  She was paroled after serving twelve years.

It was interesting to see Angelina Jolie as Christine Collins in this film.  She looked right at home with bobbed hair (complete with finger waves) and a Cloche hat.  There was a scene where Jolie is hosed down in the shower.  I was looking for any signs of her numerous tattoos without success.  It did not look like they used a body double, so I am thinking they removed the tattoos digitally after filming.  Jolie was exceptional in this role, showing a passion that created the stunning credibility that made me speechless.  Her performance deserves an award.  I like Jolie anyway, but she was truly magnificent in this role...I believe it was her best ever.  She fit in the 1920s with a natural ease that I thoroughly enjoyed.  Her son Walter is played by Gattlin Griffith.  Griffith does not have a big role in this film, but delivers a solid performance.  Michael Kelly was solid at the detective that uncovers the Northcott Ranch murders in spite of the political consequences.  Much of the story hinges on the dry political activist, Reverend Briegleb (John Malkovich), who brings Collins' plight to the airwaves.  Malkovich also looked right at home in the 1920s with an unflappable determination to expose corruption in the LAPD.  His performance was great.  His monotone speech gave incredible dimension to the character.  Jeffrey Donovan kept me guessing regarding his character.  He seemed like a straight shooter but turned out to be a snake.  Donovan sold the character, who was a pivotal character in the story.  It would have been easy to create this character as a completely corrupt police Captain, but instead, Donovan managed to bring an air of confidence to the character that made him slightly likable.  The one other character I need to mention is the killer, Gordon Northcott (Jason Harner).  Harner's character is delivered as visibly off-kilter.  His responses to questions following his arrest show the strength of the writing.  However, the delivery is what makes them special.  Harner gives Northcott a loopy off-balance walk and freaky smile that belies the killers past.  His character seems credible in an eerie way (has anyone checked on this guy?)  Harner's performance as Northcott was second only to Jolie's Collins.  In a word, the cast was exceptional.

I always like to talk about period pieces in terms of feel.  Did the background have me convinced that I was back in the 1920s?  Absolutely.  The cars came in exactly three colors according to my recollection.  Mostly black, I remember seeing one white and one green car during the course of the film.  It brought to mind Henry Ford's comment that you could have any color you want as long as it's black.  I don't know where they found what appeared to be dozens of cars from that era, but they looked legit.  I'm not sure where the movie was filmed but the houses and buildings also had a distinctly 1920s feel.  My grandmothers house was built in the 1930s, and some of the interior features were similar to what I saw in this film (like light switches that had two round buttons, one up and one down, instead of a toggle switch).  The attention to detail was evident in the background.  The old operator switchboard was also an intricate prop that seemed to be meticulously reconstructed.

The Motion Picture Association of America found it necessary to stamp Changeling with an R Rating.  I did not find much objectionable in this film.  There was one scene of an implied dismemberment that included blood spatter, but no visible gore.  There were also some disturbing scenes in a mental hospital that included shock treatment.  The mental hospital also had a scene of Collins getting washed with a fire hose but did not contain any real nudity.  There was also a cavity search that was implied, but was visual enough to be disturbing.  Overall, the rating is based on violence and a few carefully placed curse words.  I would not object to allowing my soon to be ten-year-old son to watch this movie.  

I was awestruck by this film.  I thought that the characters were well thought out, bringing to life actual events that transpired long before I was born.  The pacing was slow but careful.  I did not feel distracted or bored while the details of this story emerged.  I thought that the film was well packaged with enough editing to keep the movie simple and powerful.  The recreation of the period in which this movie took place was easy to digest with no glaring errors.  This carefully reconstructed story left me interested enough to research the issue further.  I am surprised that this was the first time I heard of this tragedy.  Although Changeling was nearly two and a half hours long, it seemed to be exactly the amount of time needed to tell this story.  I would give this movie five stars out of a possible five.
Changeling qualifies for CaptainD's Good Movie Write Off II.

Recommended: Yes