Changeling
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Staring Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan, Geoff Pierson
Rated R
Release date: October 31, 2008

Clint Eastwood, the greatest working director today, continues to display reasons why his films have the potential and audacity to gather like a quiet storm and later evolve to form a massive natural disaster. Unlike any director today, Eastwood manages to go beyond the surface of the true story of a woman searching for her lost son in 1928 Los Angeles by digging deep into his subject matter’s heart and finding gold in the unlikeliest of places. Time after time, he manages to show his ability of exploring darker situations and scenarios that aren’t neatly placed on the table at first glance. Watch Million Dollar Baby or Mystic River if you need reference. As Changeling moves towards its climax we experience plot revelations that deal with children being plagued of hatred and corruption at an early age. Slowly the film expands to a full-sized portrait of a town that once produced dreams, to a town that toils with human emotions as a hobby.

Searching for her 9-year-old son Walter is Christine Collins, played fiercely by Angelina Jolie. Jolie’s ability to go through all of what Christine goes through is an act of endurance. Clocking in at 140 minutes, her performance could’ve easily succumbed to melodrama and repetitiveness, but Jolie plays each scene as if it were her last, giving new life and meaning to each of Christine’s soul-searching scenes.