Changeling (2008)

Release date: 2008-10-31
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Clint Eastwood
Production Co: Imagine Entertainment, Malpaso Productions, Relativity Media
Genre: Thriller, Drama, Crime, Biography, History, Mystery
Rating: 7.7/10
Length: 2h 21min

Storyline

Los Angeles, 1928. Single mother Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) returns from work to find her nine-year-old son Walter (Gattlin Griffith) gone. She calls the L.A.P.D. to initiate a search. Five months later, a boy is found in Illinois who fits the description, and he says he's her son. To fanfare and photos, the L.A.P.D. reunite mother and son, but she insists he's not her boy. The cops dismiss her as either a liar or hysterical. When she joins a minister in his public criticism of the Police, they in turn use government power to silence and intimidate her. Meanwhile, a cop goes to a dilapidated ranch to find a Canadian lad who's without legal status; the youth tells a grisly tale. There's redress for murder; is there redress for abuse of power?

Plot Keywords

missing child, no opening credits, mother son relationship, mental hospital, conspiracy, telephone operator, los angeles california, 1920s, child murder, police corruption, abuse of power, los angeles police department, wrongful conviction, miscarriage of justice, california, reporter, pursuit, preacher, policeman, missing son

Short Review

There are moments when it seems as if it wants to be an inspirational story about a person who refuses to be beaten by a corrupt system -- but it doesn't, in the end, settle for the uplifting narrative.