Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Changeling


The other Clint Eastwood movie is good as tells a story that’s hard to believe that is based on true events and Angelina Jolie has a good performance. But for the first third of the movie I had a hard time believing the story and did not enjoyed Jolie performance. Still, as soon as Jolie character is taken to the psycho ward the movie, the story and Jolie’s performance changes and from then on the ride is heavy.

My problem with Jolie is that in the beginning I was not seeing her character Christine Collins in the screen I was seeing Angelina Jolie. But as soon as she’s in the psycho ward the character started to appear in the screen and Jolie’s performance started to look like her Oscar winning role in Girl, Interrupted.

I know that with all the publicity this movie has had it was impossible not to know that the story is about a mother that her son disappears and the police brings a boy that’s not her son and she takes him in. While this part of the story was told I had a hard time believing what they show as truly it makes little sense; but as far as I have been reading and I tend to agree this movie is not about the disappearance of the boy or the boy impersonating Walter Collins, no. This is a movie about police corruption, disempowerment of women, abuse of power, serial killers, children murders punishment and one woman that against everything and all odds brought down the police establishment. Then this is the story that I highly enjoyed and that starts after about one third of the movie. So, if it happens to you I suggest to be patient with the beginning as when the non-melodramatic story begins the ride does not stop until the very end.

I really do not understand why Eastwood chose to tell the beginning of the story the way he did, as perhaps the story could have been told more straight forward and not melodramatic; still the movie is fantastic for the excellent recreation of 1920’s Los Angeles (lots of special effects), very good lighting and framing in some scenes and for two thirds of the movie- an outstanding performance by Angelina Jolie, if she gets a nomination for Best Actress in the Oscars is well deserved.

The movie was premiered in competition at 2008 Cannes and since then has been receiving honors and accolades, including 2 nominations in the Golden Globes, one for Best Actress for Jolie and another for Best Original Score by Clint Eastwood. Jolie won the Best Actress award at the 2008 Satellite Awards and I imagine will get more honors and nominations in the current award season. To learn other nominations please browse the blog.

I do recommend the movie but if you feel that the beginning is not satisfying I strongly suggest to wait and continue watching as what comes not only is an unbelievable true story (with not many artistic licenses) but also Jolie does an impressive performance.

If it happens to you and want to find more information about the true story -as happened to me- I suggest you take a look at this Los Angeles Times blog that has the original material and many photographs.

Enjoy!!!

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