Saturday, November 1, 2008

CHANGELING

“CHANGELING” (Angelina Jolie)
I didn’t list the co-stars because this is pretty much a one woman show & the only stand-out among the supporting roles is by an unknown. I’ve never thought much of Clint Eastwood as an actor(All those one-note spaghetti westerns & Dirty Harry roles didn’t show me a lot of range) but as a director he gets the best out of his cast members – In this case, Angelina Jolie. She’s a shoe-in for an Oscar nomination &, as of this moment, the obvious favorite to win. I think she’s a very strange human being, but the lady shows that she has developed into an excellent actress; her performance here is as impressive as they come. The fact that the story is fascinating (based on true life events) & her character goes thru a wide range of emotions while underneath it all being a withdrawn, very private person helps her cause to capture her 2nd Oscar.
Jolie plays Christine Collins, a single mother raising her 9 year old son, Walter in late 1920’s LA. Christine works as a telephone operator supervisor & though she makes enough money to live in a rather large home, she doesn’t seem to have enough to afford a babysitter. To her defense, she is called into work on a Saturday on the day Walter is abducted & turns up missing. How did the boy get taken from his home without screaming or putting up a fight? How come none of the neighbors witnessed this or see any strangers lurking about? Well, those questions are not only left answered, they aren’t even touched upon. (I’m getting my few beefs out of the way because I actually LOVED this film – It is my new #1 of 2008)
Proving that even wonderful movies have flaws, I also wasn’t impressed with John Malkovich’s portrayal of a local priest who ‘goes after’ corrupt cops. (A ‘holy man’ in the 1920’s using the phrase “Where in the Hell is Christine Collins?” – didn’t really ring true to me) My last complaint has to do with the abduction, but I’m not going to mention it in this review as it would reveal too much – All I’ll say is the way the director (Eastwood) explains how Walter’s supposed abductor operates doesn’t match up with what happens...
Which brings me to another extremely impressive performance – that by Jason Butler Harner as Gordon Northcutt – the creepily charming abductor. A very disturbed character given a very unique portrayal by the actor - In a film full of nuanced supporting performances, his stood out to me. Michael Kelly as Detective Ybarra, who discovers the truth about Walter’s disappearance & Amy Ryan, once again packing a lot of power into the few scenes she is given as a prostitute deemed ‘insane’ by the LAPD are also to be applauded for their efforts.
When I first saw the preview to this, I thought ‘how stupid’ – A missing child is returned to his mother & she claims that the boy isn’t her son, but no one believes her??? What kind of nonsense is Clint trying to sell us? When you add in the fact that the boy was missing for only 5 months, it makes it even more ridiculous. So it’s a stretch to ‘buy’ into that premise, but they make it almost seem possible due to how they ‘convince’ Christine to ‘just go along’ with the hoax for now – With the heat off of them to find her ‘real’ son, they’ll be able to follow more leads. When that doesn’t turn out to be the case & Christine starts losing her grip while living with a strange child that calls her mommy, she moves to take action against the LAPD by telling the press what actually happened.
If it wasn’t for the Reverend Gustav Briegleb (Malkovich) Mrs. Collins would have wasted away in a mental ward.
The kid actors are kid actors – they read their lines & you try not to let it interrupt the illusion of watching this story thru the eyes of the characters. It seems that lately the best child actors are female & the better adult actors are male – but not in this case. Angelina Jolie plays a real person & she plays her exceptionally well – not like Robert Downey, Jr. who was just a dude playing a dude that’s pretending to be another dude in ‘Tropic Thunder’, Jolie becomes Christine Collins (Assuming the real Mrs. Collins had big fat lips smothered in big fat red lipstick) Yes, she looked like Angelina, but I didn’t see a speck of the actress in this role. Now I just hope that Sean Penn gets his long overdue 2nd Oscar the same night Angelina gets hers...

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am just getting back from seeing Changeling, and I was very impressed. Best picture and female performance of the year so far. And I also agree with you that it's Jolie's career best to date. She did a DDL in disappearing inside of Ms. Collins. If she doesn't get Oscar nominated for this role, then the Academy are just nuts ! She really conveyed those emotions so believable, as if she was really going through this terrible tragedy. You buy it. I also must commend Clint Eastwood too. It seems everything he touches turnes to gold these days. I wonder, if Gran Torino is as good as Changeling if he could get nominated twice in the same category. Hey, it's happened before with Steven Soderbergh the year he won for Traffic. Anyway, back to the movie. I throroghly enjoyed this film and for how long it is, the pacing was perfect and there was never a lull. Now I wonder if we are going to see some people commenting that it's overrated or not that good. Because I'll be right here to set them straight ! Good review.

Anonymous said...

I think Terry got the Georgee C. Scott movie mixed up with this one. There really was The Changeling horror movie that came out in the late 70's or so. I think Eastwood just called this Changeling to avoid confusion with the " other " movie, and yet lots of people are calling it The Changeling. It was almost going to be called something even dumber.
Anyway, I don't know if the film is in Best Picture range, but I was really knocked out by Angelina that's one thing I am for sure ! I beleive that she has the acting chops to take on any kind of role now. She was emotionally " there " for the viewer. It played it as if she was really going through that bad situation. It was genuine and didn't feel or come across as over the top or that she was trying too hard. It was a natural conveying. Can't say anything more positive really. She should be a shoe in lock for a Oscar nomination. She got ripped off last year I believe. Your review is concise and to the point and it could really be of some help to someone who hasn't seen it yet. I also highly recommend it.

Anonymous said...

Some people have been complaining that Clint's latest works have been very depressing, but you cannot deny the subject matter wasn't interesting at least, and the same goes with Changeling. And people owe it to themselves if they are a fan of movies to see the Jolie performance, because it's an impressive one.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, movieluva, blue stater & Eddie for you comments; 'Gran Torino' doesn't have the look of an Oscar-type movie to me - Although it appears to have an interesting story, it struck me as 'Dirty Harry- The Retirement Years' (& thus, not of Oscar caliber) / I didn't get confused with 'The' Changeling because I've never heard of that film(If it was a 70's horror flick, well, that pretty much explains why) Though I do stand corrected by misreading the title... Angelina was outstanding in this role, but let's not get ahead of ourselves - Clint Eastwood has to be given a lot of the credit - Sean Penn, Tim Robbins & Hillary Swank all won recent trophies by appearing in one of his films - If Angelina takes this performance & throws it in the dumpster by doing another 'Wanted' or 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith' - then her career isn't going to 'take off'. What has Halle Berry done since 'Monster's Ball'? Did anyone else notice how putrid she was in last year's 'Things We Lost In The Fire?'? Angelina just showed us that under the right direction she can act- Now, can she do it without Clint's guidance? / To me, Eddie, anyone that complains about 'Mystic River', 'Million Dollar Baby' & 'Letters From Iwo Jima' being too depressing should stop going to the movies. I'd rather watch those films repeatedly than have to sit thru a lighthearted 'Clyde the Orangutan' sequel!

Anonymous said...

I think Angelina has done some good work and some not so good work. I subscribe to Variety and I read some time ago about her next two project's. One is an adaptation of the popular novel by Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged. Then the other she will be portraying Catherine The Great in Mercenary: Love and Honor that'll be directed by writer of Braveheart and We Were Soldiers, Randal Wallace.
Some of the good- Changeling, A Mighty Heart, Girl, Interrupted ( Oscar win ) The Bone Collector, Pushing Tin.
Some not so good- Gone in 60 Seconds, Original Sin, Life Or Something Like It, Alexander ( she was totally miscast as Farrell's mother, when they are almost the same age, and didn't buy it for a second )
So it looks like the next projects will have some meat to them and she'll continue on her artistic peak.
I agree with you on the Halle Berry analogy. And did she really DESERVE to win that year ? I mean it was good but I felt that Sissy Spacek did a better job for In The Bedroom and Judi Dench in Iris was very good too. Berry hasn't come close to her Monster's performance.

Anonymous said...

I'm a little late in chiming in but I have been working on my blog.
Well, I liked Changeling. I thought it was original and well acted, especially and obviously Angelina Jolie. She has proven before she has the acting chops to go way out there in charatcer before. She has admitted that she does the high budget action films because they are fun to make and she gets to be a bad ass.
As much as I liked the movie, I don't think it will be nominated for an Oscar for Best Film. But I surely believe that Jolie should earn an Oscar nomination in the role of Christine Collins. And we are going to have to hold out for Gran Torino to see if Clint gets any nominations. I saw one site that predicts he'll get an Actor nomination for GT and maybe at the same time get a nomination for Director for Changeling. Should definitely be interesting to see how it all plays out.
oscartracker.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

And to your last line of your review, I think Sean Penn has a pretty good chance at winning his second Oscar for Milk, the performance I saw in the trailer was pretty intriguing, but it's a more competitive year than it was last year. Last year was a slam dunk lock and nobody came close. This year Penn will have competition from Frank Langella, Jeff Goldblum, Will Smith, Micky Roarke, Leonardo DiCaprio, Richard Jenkins, Hugh Jackman and Benicio Del Toro. And out of that group I think he only has to worry about maybe two other actors at the most. I couldn't even begin to fathom the Best Supporting Actor category !

Anonymous said...

This is a good movie with a good story. Angelina Jolie is good in the role of Christine Collins

Anonymous said...

Thanks for stopping by Lucy, always great to see a new name. Hard to argue with your assessment since 'Changeling' & Jolie were indeed 'good'.
Since 'Gran Torino' has been mentioned - Am I the only one that feels he's playing Dirty Harry:Retired Gun Happy Cop?
Did Dirty Harry movies ever get Oscar nods? Maybe I'll change my opinion after I see it, but the trailer looks like a good 'vigilante revenge' story, but not an Oscar calibre one.

Anonymous said...

Sad for Clint. I think he derserved a director nomination, thinking Changeling was that good of a movie. Angelina totally deserves this nomination. Her best performance yet. Kind of surprised it recived a cinematography nomination though.

Never would have thought it or saw that coming. When watching the movie, I wasn't thinking that I am being impressed with the camera work. But concrats to that guy too. I'm sure he was just as surprised. I bet Clint is happy for him as well.