Changeling
Dir: Clint Eastwood
2008
***
There is an element of 'film making by numbers' with Changeling but as far as historical accuracies and projecting the emotion and frustration that Christine Collins must have felt, Mr. Eastwood has done a fine job. It's an interesting story though, so I think it would have been hard to go wrong, I do however, think that a number of other directors could have made a much better film. It does seem to go on a little longer than it should but I'm glad that Mr. Eastwood didn't take the lazy option and reduce years of interesting story into seconds of written information, he keeps going and in doing so only highlights the hope that Christine Collins had even though her plight, especially now with hindsight, was ultimately hopeless. I'm not a huge Angelina Jolie fan but she doesn't do anything wrong here, as much as she doesn't really do much either. John Malkovich was good but didn't have a lot of screen time and Jeffrey Donovan and Jason Butler Harner both played their very different roles as villains convincingly. A frustrating, horrific but fascinating story, adequately told.