With a perfect blend of style and substance, Clint Eastwood’s films have become so impeccably crafted they’re practically boring.
It’s simply become too difficult to get excited about a director who, after Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, and the Iwo Jima movies, seems capable of belting out an Oscar frontrunner in his sleep. I’m sure I could cut and paste much of this review for Eastwood’s Gran Torino, due for release later this year. He’s become so predictably good.
With Changeling, Eastwood adapts the compelling true story of the Wineville Chicken Murders and the corrupt LAPD of the 1920s into a well-packaged period piece.
Angelina Jolie seems comfortable playing the classic Hollywood damsel, ably losing her celebrity in the role of Christine Collins. Through this character, Jolie brings a delicate balance of fragility, restraint, and torrential emotion to the film.
Collins is a middle-class woman whose kidnapped son is replaced with an impostor by the scandal-fraught Police Department. After she dares to challenge the impostor’s identity, the LAPD send her to the loony bin (it’s almost hard to believe that this is true, but it did indeed happen).
Changeling is a harrowing story that uses its protagonist as the only beacon of virtue. Eastwood’s trademark gray aesthetic is on full display—the only distinctive, colourful images are Jolie’s crimson lips and the occasional splash of blood.
Yet the film fails to properly develop any other character. Though Collins’ many virtues may have been exaggerated, she’s depicted as a brave, patient heroine, and a true figure of female empowerment. The only other agent of any complexity is a wily serial killer whose wry sense of humour makes his perversity all the more disturbing.
While Eastwood offers a respectable treatment with economical storytelling, the film’s exquisitely framed and studio-polished look lacks the rawness of real life. Consequently, the viewer is never entirely engaged with Collins’ story. Instead, we’re fully aware that we’re right in the midst of a Clint Eastwood blockbuster that has its sights set firmly on the Academy Awards.
Rating: VVV
