Changeling

Changeling

Miscast and Told Wrong
Ron Smith

Angelina Jolie is Christine Collins, a single mother living in 1928 Los Angeles. She works for the telephone company as a supervisor who is often on call. One day she is called in to work, which makes it impossible to take her son to the movies as promised. When she returns home, he is gone. Vanished.

She files a police report. Months go by and he is still not found. The story of her son’s disappearance is a national topic.

Some months later she is informed her son has been found. There is much fanfare in the papers. The LAPD, who found the boy, the press and Christine meet at the train station to welcome the boy home.

OOPS! “This is not my son”

“It’s been months and your son has changed,” explained the Police Captain, take him home and you will see he is your boy.” Christine is confused and takes the boy home. Always insisting that the boy is not her son.

OOPS again! He is shorter than her son and he is circumcised. That’s the last straw. She again tells the LAPD that it is not her son.

Well, the LAPD is really corrupt and doesn’t want the public to know that they didn’t find the right boy so they put Christine in the ‘looney bin’. This seems to be where they put all women who are causing problems for the police.

John Malkovich plays Jason Harner a preacher who has a radio show in town and crusades against the corrupt LAPD. He is instrumental in applying public pressure to resolve who the boy really is. In the end, most of the questions are answered and the story is told.

My Recommendation

My recommendation is to sneak into this movie. I don’t know what happened. A Clint Eastwood movie with Ron Howard co-producing should be a hit. I think almost every part in the movie was miscast. Angelina Jolie didn’t make me care. The characters didn’t come alive. The setting was wonderful and must have taken an enormous amount of effort to put together; but he story was just told wrong. The movie was a little long. The villain didn’t seem believable. Watching this movie reminded me of turning on the T.V at 3 a.m. to be lulled back to sleep because my girlfriend’s snoring is keeping me awake. I wouldn’t ask for my money back, but I wouldn’t recommend it. It just didn’t work for me.

Cast and Credits

Angela Jolie, John Malkovich, Gattlin Griffith
Director: Clint Eastwood
Producer: Clint Eastwood and Ron Howard

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