Changeling (2008)

“I used to tell Walter, “Never start a fight… but always finish it.” I didn’t start this fight… but by God, I’m going to finish it.” – Christine Collins

Number of Times Seen – 2 (17 Dec 2008 and 21 Sep 2016)

Brief Synopsis – After the police return her missing son, a single mother still refuses to believe that it is her child that has been returned to her and tries to fight the LAPD in order to find her real son despite everyone claiming she is wrong.

My Take on it –This is a movie that blew me away both times that I saw it.

This mainly has to do with the way it was written, directed and of course by the acting.

This is yet another film that proves that Clint Eastwood is an amazing director and in some ways it can even be said that he is better behind the camera than in front of it.

He was able to portray this story so well that it can bring just about anyone to completely sympathize with the characters and the situations shown here.

The writer of this film is J. Michael Straczynski, who I have been a fan of for more than twenty years ever since he gave us sci-fi fans the TV show Babylon 5 that he created.  He wrote just about all of the episodes and was the first TV writer to write an entire season of a show (he wrote two full seasons and all but one episode of a third one).

He did a wonderful job here recreating this True story and is able to easily get the viewer involved in the story and keep us interested for almost 2 and a half hours.

It disappoints me to see that he doesn’t write as much as he used to. 😦

As far as the acting goes, I have never been a big fan of Angelina Jolie’s, but she is great here as the main character. She was perfect for this role and even managed to get an Oscar nomination for Best Actress from this.

The story is presented in a deliberately slowish fashion, but it evolves into something so much more engaging as it moves forward.

This is definitely one of my favorite movies from 2008!

Bottom Line – I was blown away by this film once again. Not a fan of Jolie, but she is excellent here.  This film is further proof that Eastwood is an amazing director and much better behind the camera than he ever was in front of it. Always been a  fan of Straczynski and was so happy to see him give us yet another great story.  Definitely among Eastwood’s best films as a director.  Loved how the story slowly evolved as it moved forward.  Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Clint Eastwood agreed to direct the same afternoon he read the script. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy

_______________________________________

Check out my *updated* movie stats here

To see my reviews of Oscar Winning Performances check out this link

To see my reviews of all Oscar Best Picture Winners click here (now complete)

Here is a link to my movie index A-Z