换子疑云

Industriously re-constructing a factual simulacrum of the true story of Christine Collins, a Depression-era single mother in L.A., whose unrelenting pursuit of her missing son would instigate a profound change in redressing LAPD's rampant corruption and maltreatment of independent women who dare to question their authority, Clint Eastwood's CHANGELING is a rousing testament of women empowerment, a harrowing crime mystery and an appreciable showcase for its star Angelina Jolie to exhibit her acting prowess.

Distraught after her 9-year-old son Walter (Griffith) goes missing, Christine's apprehensive elation is dashed when the son whom the police claims to find turns out to be an imposter, and her consequential plea to keep looking for Walter hits a brick wall because the law refuses to acknowledge their mistake and Christine is arbitrarily dispatched to be cooped up in a psychopathic ward without a warrant. When a parallel investigation reveals that Walter is very likely a victim of a child murderer, Christine, rescued by Reverend Gustav Briegleb (Malkovich) from the ward, wages a crusade against the law enforcement's wrongdoing and corruption, and hope against hope, she never stops searching for her son.

Eastwood is a dab hand at concocting the period look and palette, his frippery-free direction, coupled with his jazz-saturated score and Tom Stern's aesthetically muted cinematography, secures that the film is an up-to-par, orthodox melodrama can keep spectators rapt. By and large CHANGELING is a hallmark Hollywood mainstream production premised on a horrific yet inspiring true story, but it is also roundly black-and-white in its personages' characterization, every character is either good or bad (Jeffrey Donovan's Captain Jones is an abomination whereas Amy Ryan's member of the oldest profession, a godsend), no gray area is left to explore among them. Straczynski punctiliously hammers out an exhaustively fact-based script, yet nuance is clearly not his bailiwick.

For the penny dreadful part, aka, the heinous 1928 Wineville Chicken Coop murders in Mira Loma, California, to which Walter's disappearance is ascribed, CHANGELING doesn't go for the whole hog, it is Christine's quiet resilience and maternal devotion to be fêted here, and not a true-crime procedural trying to demystify the most appalling sickness in humanity. That said, it does leave some unquenched thirst, a morbid fascination toward the culprit Gordon Stewart Northcott (Harner, stoutheartedly transforming himself into a twisted soul). How a monster is born? That is a juicy story for Ryan Murphy's anthology series "Monster".

Jolie, tricked out with a potpourri of exquisite millinery, calls forth a very compelling impression of a woman in distress and remarkably refrains from letting a hardened badassery (the image audience rather familiar with) emerge out of Christine' meek, passive persona. Even when she finally roars, after realizing a closure is unforthcoming from Gordon, it is the eruption of irrepressible ire rather than malice. Jolie injects plenty of pathos and dignity into Christine's ordeal, for once, she busts her chops to remind the world, before becoming a mega cinematic action star, she is an Academy Award winning actor, which is opportune to fan our excitement and raise the expectation bar toward her upcoming Maria Callas biopic directed by Pablo Larraín, a third Oscar nomination looks propitious.

referential entries: Clint Eastwood's RICHARD JEWELL (2019, 6.8/10), MYSTIC RIVER (2003, 8.9/10).

Title: Changeling

Year: 2008

Genre: Drama, Crime, Biography, Mystery

Country: USA

Language: English

Director/Music: Clint Eastwood

Screenwriter: J. Michael Straczynski

Cinematography: Tom Stern

Editors: Joel Cox, Gary Roach

Cast:

Angelina Jolie

Jeffrey Donovan

John Malkovich

Michael Kelly

Jason Butler Harner

Eddie Alderson

Devon Conti

Gattlin Griffith

Colm Feore

Amy Ryan

Denis O'Hare

Riki Lindhome

Wendy Worthington

Geoff Pierson

Peter Gerety

Frank Wood

Reed Birney

Dale Dickey

Asher Axe

Rating: 7.7/10