Changeling – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Feb 17, 2009, 13:27 GMT

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 ...more

It’s not a remake of the great ghost story starring George C. Scott (but Eastwood helming a ghost story seems like a cool idea to me), but more of a more horrific tale of police corruption, murder, kidnapping, and the terror of losing your child.  

It’s 1928 and Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) is a hardworking single mom.  She works as a supervisor for the phone company and is called in one weekend because no one else is available.  On March 10, 1928, she leaves her young son Walter (Gattlin Griffith) at home by himself until she can work her shift.  When she does go home she finds the house empty and no sign of Walter.

In a panic she calls the police who tell her that she has to wait 48 hours before they’re send someone out on a missing person’s case.  The police begin to work her case and five months later they say that they’ve found Walter.

Captain J. J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan), the head of the LAPD juvenile division, envisions a happy reunion that will soften the police’s tarnished reputation in the press.  When Christine claims that this boy (Devon Conti) is not her son he brushed off her concerns and convinces her to take him home “on a trial basis.” 

The LAPD has a tarnished reputation in part thanks to the radio broadcasts of the Rev. Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich) who loudly protests police chief James E. Davis (Colm Feore) forming “Gun Squads” that have the authority to gun down whomever they please.  When he hears of Collins’ plight he offers to help her. 

When Jones is unable to convince her to keep quiet he has her committed to an insane asylum under Code 12, which allows them to do so without any interference from other agencies or warrants.  Things look grim for Collins but things only get darker when Detective Lester Ybarra (Michael Kelly) goes to arrest teen Sanford Clark (Eddie Alderson) because he’s overstayed his Canadian visa to stay with his cousin Gordon Northcott (Jason Butler Harner). 

Clark appears skittish when being arrested but loosens when he finds out he’s being arrested for illegally entering the country.  However, while in police custody the pressure of his crimes come to bear on the lad and he confesses to Ybarra that he and Northcott had killed around twenty boys in the farm’s chicken coop. 

He informs Jones of the situation and he wants Ybarra to return to Los Angeles with the boy.  Ybarra smells a rat and decides to disobey orders and takes the boy back out to the farm and they discover the remains of the boys. 

Collins is then freed from the asylum thanks to this and the crusading Briegleb, but then her real fight begins as she takes on the corrupt machine that is the police force of Los Angeles as well as witness the trial of the man who refuses to confess as to whether her son is alive or dead.  

Changeling is a masterfully directed film from Clint Eastwood.  Some have said that it was an attempt at winning Angelina Jolie an Oscar and that might not be too far from the truth. 

Christine Collins certainly wasn’t the 1928 glamour that Jolie makes her out to be in this film, at least from the pictures I’ve seen of her.  They’ve all been in black and white but first impression and serious look on the real Collins’ face makes me wonder about that bright red lipstick Jolie sports following her stay in the asylum. 

It’s still a harrowing performance as Jolie finds her child missing, a crooked, unfeeling behemoth of a bureaucracy, a serial killer (though did they use that term in 1928?  I thought it wrong when one of the detectives called Northcott that.), and a time in bedlam. 

She does manage to pull off a grand performance, but I got the impression that the real Collins, from my short research, was a much stronger woman.  Jolie just seems too chic. 

John Malkovich gives a driven, yet quiet, performance as the crusading reverend and I was most impressed with the blustery, righteous air that Geoff Pierson brings to defense attorney Sammy Hahn. 

Jeffrey Donovan is one that you’ll love to hate as the ignorant, deceptive devil that runs the juvenile division.  You’d imagine that if Ybarra, played admirably by Michael Kelly, chose to obey his superiors order to bring Clark, a chilling, well acted turn by Alderson, back to L.A. that he would’ve covered it all up and Northcutt would’ve gotten away with murder. 

This is definitely Hollywood history as a large portion of the case is amalgamated.  The creepy Northcutt, reminding me of Robert Walker in Strangers on a Train, was aided in his killing spree by his mother, who later turned out to actually be his grandmother, but that character is not mentioned in the film. 

You just need to accept that this isn’t a true representation of history and be influenced by the powerful acting that is happening in the film.  

Changeling is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.  Special features include the 13 minute “Partners in Crime” that details the making of the film and the 5 minute “Common Thread” about how Jolie played Collins.  

Clint Eastwood captures a slice of time with this film.  It seems to embody what 1920s L.A. would’ve been.  I don’t know about its historical accuracy when it comes to the real Collins though.  Whatever the case, the film still has a power and even though it covers some pretty horrific events it’s well deserving of attention.  

Changeling is now available at Amazon. It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a March 30th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.