Sunday, November 02, 2008
A+E, Movies, Reviews

Boy, interrupted

‘Changeling’ too much of a good thing

BY STEVE WARREN

“Changeling,” based on the true story of a woman who didn’t know when to quit, becomes a movie that doesn’t know when to quit. The first of Clint Eastwood’s two “awards season” entries is actually a movie and a half—one great one and half a good one.

The great one reaches a natural conclusion after about 95 minutes, with all of the basic conflicts resolved or on their way to being settled in court. Nothing else is needed but title cards to reveal the ultimate outcome—and these are shown anyway, after more than half an hour is spent on unnecessary, anticlimactic scenes.

Arguably the most amazing thing about “Changeling” is that it’s taken 80 years for this story to reach the screen, when it has enough exploitable elements to have inspired dozens of bad movies. J. Michael Straczynski’s screenplay appeals to the intellect and the emotions with equal effectiveness, and Eastwood’s direction unfailingly knows which to emphasize at any given moment.

Angelina Jolie has reached the point in her career where we take for granted she’ll be superb in a role like this, and she doesn’t disappoint. In a line sure to resonate later, her Christine Collins tells her 9-year-old son Walter (Gattlin Griffith), “Never start a fight. Always finish it.”

The next day—March 10, 1928—this single mother comes home from work and Walter is gone. The police won’t look for him for 24 hours, and they don’t find him for five months. Then, putting on an elaborate show for the press, they “reunite” Christine with a boy located in DeKalb, Ill.—but it’s not Walter.

He says he’s Walter, the police say he’s Walter, experts commissioned by the police say he’s Walter; but a mother knows. He’s three inches shorter than Walter was; he’s circumcised, which Walter wasn’t; and others who knew Walter back up Christine’s story.

Radio evangelist Rev. Gustav Briegleb (a surprisingly subdued John Malkovich) has already taken up Christine’s case. Perhaps the spotlight he shone on it pressured the police to bring it to a false conclusion. His mission in life has less to do with Christianity than with exposing “the most violent, corrupt and incompetent police department this side of the Rocky Mountains.”

Briegleb’s crusade is the second point of the film, which, like a good sermon, has three points. The third, which won’t be revealed here, is introduced near the end of the first hour and involves a showy performance by Jason Butler Harner as Gordon Northcott, whose name will live in infamy.

As absurd as the LAPD’s position is, they won’t admit they’re wrong. Capt. J.J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) is the point man on the case, under pressure from Chief James Davis (Colm Feore) and the mayor. When Christine doesn’t back down and insists on embarrassing the force, Jones has her committed to the psychopathic ward of Los Angeles County General Hospital.

Jolie should know her way around there after winning an Oscar for “Girl, Interrupted,” but she has a prostitute, Carol Dexter (Amy Ryan), to show her the ropes and explain how the police systematically send women there to discredit them or keep them quiet.

The horror and frustration of Christine’s situation could be conveyed with a little less redundancy, but several scenes are so outrageous they provide ironic comic relief, even as they shock with the gravity of what’s happening.

With so much positive attention lavished on Eastwood as producer and director, it’s easy to overlook that he also wrote the quietly effective musical score. If he weren’t so versatile, he’d be hailed as a great composer, but it’s like ignoring that someone pitched a perfect game because he also found a cure for cancer. “Changeling” is too much of a good thing, but that’s better than not having any of it. 3 STARS