Some clarification: nothing supernatural or science-fictiony happens
to the kid in Clint Eastwood’s Changeling. The film’s title, and
the fact that it’s written by Babylon 5 and comic scribe J.
Michael Straczynski, seems to have collectively misled my boyfriend and
IMDB posters alike. Instead, the film tells the true story of single
mother Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), whose only child disappears
from her Los Angeles home while she’s at work; five months later, the
boy’s “found” in Illinois and returns home, looking/acting completely
different and inches shorter. When Christine tries to tell police the
boy she’s been given isn’t hers, the corrupt 1920s-era LAPD, fearing
bad publicity, ignores her claims and publicly discredits her. There’s
lots to like about Changeling—Jolie does “panicked but genteel
1920s mom” pretty well, child-killing rancher Gordon (Jason Butler
Harner) is a deeply unnerving villain, there’s HBO cameos aplenty and
the film’s beautifully shot first hour-and-a-half is well-paced and
suspenseful. The rest isn’t bad, but it’s bloated—after the 90-minute
mark, the pacing goes wonky; many moments in the ensuing hour feel like
natural endings, but Eastwood and Straczynski ignore them all. It makes
you wish the fake kid had been a shape-shifting alien.
This article appears in Mar 19-25, 2009.