Changeling

Genre: Drama
Director: Clint Eastwood
Cast: Angelina Jolie(Lara Croft:Tomb Raider), John Malkovich(Burn after Reading), Jeffrey Donovan(Hitch)
Runtime: 142 min

Plot:

Los Angeles, 1928: On a Saturday morning in a working-class suburb, Christine said goodbye to her son, Walter, and left for work. When she came home, she discovered he had vanished. A fruitless search ensues, and months later, a boy claiming to be the nine-year-old is returned. Dazed by the swirl of cops, reporters and her conflicted emotions, Christine allows him to stay overnight. But in her heart, she knows he is not Walter.

I watched this movie on 17 Jan evening with Sylvia @ Cineleisure.

This is another movie that tells us how corrupted the polices and authorities were in the old days, how women were belittled in the past, and how unsafe the community were used to be.

In this movie, as long as you are a woman who opposes the police, you will find yourself land in the mental hospital, sane or insane. When there, you can't be sad or you will be classify as depress. You can't be smiling or you will be classify as uncontrolled moods. When you disobey, you will be sent to Room 18 aka Electrifying room. It is so hard to be a woman in the past.

Angelina played Christine Collins, a single mother, whose son went missing. A few actresses campaigned for the role including Reese Witherspoon and Hilary Swank but Angelina was casted with the fact that her face fitted the period setting. Overall, she did just passable performance, as i compared her against Jeon Do-yeon who also played a mother whose son was kidnapped and killed in a Korean movie - Secret Sunshine, who did a better job.

One thing about Clint Eastwood's movie is, he spells everything out in detail, in a gentle way. Eventually, the movie seems draggy. But since this is suppose to be a historical movie, it seems understandable for the movie to drag a bit.

ah-deng says: 2½/5 A bit disappointed with Angelina Jolie's performance, thinks she can do better than this.