Displaying all 2 Review

• Changeling — for Changeling
  Written by cosmobrown on 29.09.2009

  In 1955, an uncredited actor played "Lab Technician" in B-movie Revenge of the Creature. Over fifty years later, that uncredited actor is now one of cinemas most iconic actors and prolific and consistently excellent directors. That man is of course Clint Eastwood. With Changeling, Mr Eastwood may well have made his best film to date. He beautifully and authentically captures the look and feel of 1920's LA down to the finest details, and works from a superb script from J.Michael Straczynski (a writer who, before this film, was mainly known for writing slightly crappy TV shows including Babylon 5 and 9 episodes of She-Ra!). Based on a true story of corruption and deceit in the LA police force, as Christine Collin's (Angelina Jolie) son goes missing only to be found and returned to her 5 months later. Only problem? The boy returned to her is not her son. When she presents this story to the police, she is painted a deluded liar and a bad mother, before being locked up in a psychiatric hospital. Yet, her resolve never breaks, as she continues to fight for justice and remains determined that her son is alive. Angelina Jolie gives perhaps the greatest performance of her career, finally getting the chance to let her acting do the talking, impressive, heart-breaking but still under-stated, never resorting to over the top theatrics. She's surrounded by top performances from Jeffrey Donovan as the corrupt cop, Michael Kelly as a good cop and John Malkovich as the only man who believes Christine's story. A staggering true story brought to vivid and impressive life by Eastwood and Jolie, gripping throughout while also taking you into some unexpected directions. Powerful, at times heart-breaking, film-making. Here's hoping the now 78 year old Clint Eastwood can keep producing films of this quality for many more years.

• Changeling — for Changeling
  Written by Asmodai on 22.09.2009

  Changeling is a 2008 drama film directed by Clint Eastwood, and starring Angelina Jolie (in an oscar-nominated role) and John Malkovich.
  Angelina Jolie is a single mother whose son gets kidnapped. When the police brings him back she is convinced that they brought back the wrong boy, but the police insists they did not make a mistake, and try to shut her up.
  This film is another great work from a very talented director, even though it does not reach to the same rank of masterpiece as Million Dollar Baby, Unforgiven and Mystic River. Most of the acting performances are solid, and I consider it to be one of Jolie’s finest performances ever. The story, however, is sometimes somewhat confusing and unfortunately tries too much to prove itself to be taken from a true story.
  Set decoration and cinematography are downright stunning, with a beautiful Los Angeles from the 20’s being shown, next to the proper make-up and costumes for that period. Eastwood again proves himself to be a brilliant director, and gives his actors free reign to try out new ideas for their characters; and with his calm style of directing made himself loved by the whole cast.

  In short, just a good film, that I can recommend to all people besides haters of character-detectives starring Angelina Jolie and directed by Clint Eastwood.