If you're looking for a disturbing horror movie but don't feel like putting yourself through the gore-ified Saw V,"" look no further than Clint Eastwood's new film ""Changeling"" - a brooding, unsettling drama about one mother's mission to discover the truth behind her son's mysterious disappearance.
The film, set in 1928, focuses on a single mother, Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), who returns home from work to discover that her 9-year-old son, Walter, has mysteriously vanished. Five months later, the police department reunites Christine with a boy they claim is Walter. However, Christine continuously voices her skepticism because the Los Angeles Police Department has been building a reputation of corruption because of Presbyterian Reverend Gustav Briegleb's (John Malkovich) efforts to expose their corruption.
Seizing on the opportunity to shift the spotlight away from their misdeeds, the LAPD refocuses the media on their ""hard work"" by touting the mother-son reunion. However, the media attention backfires when Christine comes to the media, claiming the boy is not her son. Rather than admit that they made a mistake, LAPD Captain J.J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) spends much of the film doing everything in his power to discredit Christine and paint her as an emotional, hysterical woman who doesn't want the responsibility of caring for her child.
Jolie excels with her powerful performance as Christine and has already earned several early Oscar recommendation. Whether portraying despair, hope or anguish, Jolie brings raw emotion to every scene. With Eastwood's repetitious close-ups of Jolie's emotional face, she is obviously meant to carry the film, and Jolie doesn't buckle under the pressure. If anything, she embraces it.
Jolie, however, is not the only star that shines in ""Changeling."" Malkovich's part is small but powerful as the corruption-fighting minister. Jolie may carry the movie, but Malkovich gives the movie its flow. Without him, the movie would have ended 30 minutes in.
The film is deliberately slow-paced, forcing the audience to feel Christine's frustration with the LAPD, which spends much of its time arguing with Christine instead of doing its job. The excuses the police make for Walter's change in appearance are laughably absurd (a boy can shrink four inches during a traumatizing experience). Like Christine, viewers want justice, so each scene seems to take forever as frustrations build. Eastwood puts the audience in Christine's shoes, so they feel every horrifying emotion that Christine feels.
The film is based on a true story and Eastwood sticks to the historical facts, making the film all the more disturbing. If this were a fictional film, the audience might not be affected by its powerful conclusion as much, but because it's nonfiction, the audience is forced to confront the immorality of men who refuse to do the right thing.
A horror movie for adults, ""The Changeling"" will leave audience members with an unsettling feeling in their stomachs that will linger for days.
Grade: AB
