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Towelhead
57
Body of Lies
57
Secret Life of Bees, The
57
High School Musical 3: Senior Year
57
Flash of Genius
56
Save Me
56
Bottle Shock
56
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
55
Ping Pong Playa
53
Quarantine
53
RocknRolla
53
Rocker, The
53
Lucky Ones, The
51
Savage Grace
51
Holly
49
Children of Huang Shi, The
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Family That Preys, The
47
Swing Vote
47
Lakeview Terrace
45
Pride and Glory
43
Eagle Eye
40
Igor
36
Righteous Kill
35
Mirrors
34
My Best Friend's Girl
32
Repo! The Genetic Opera
31
Max Payne
28
Fireproof
26
Everybody Wants to Be Italian
26
Babylon A.D.
24
Bangkok Dangerous
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American Carol, An
19
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Surfer, Dude
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Eden Lake
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Alphabet Killer, The
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Changeling
Universal Pictures
|
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FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for some violent and disturbing content, and language
Starring
Angelina Jolie,
John Malkovich,
Jeffrey Donovan,
Colm Feore,
Amy Ryan,
and
Michael Kelly
Los Angeles, 1928: On a Saturday morning in a working-class suburb, Christine said goodbye to her son, Walter, and left for work. When she came home, she discovered he had vanished. A fruitless search ensues, and months later, a boy claiming to be the nine-year-old is returned. Dazed by the swirl of cops, reporters and her conflicted emotions, Christine allows him to stay overnight. But in her heart, she knows he is not Walter. As she pushes authorities to keep looking, she learns that in Prohibition-era L.A., women don't challenge the system and live to tell their story. Slandered as delusional and unfit, Christine finds an ally in activist Reverend Briegleb, who helps her fight the city to look for her missing boy. Based on the actual incident that rocked California's legal system, Changeling tells the shocking tale of a mother's quest to find her son, and those who won't stop until they silence her. (Universal Pictures)
GENRE(S): |
Crime
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Drama
|
Mystery
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WRITTEN BY: |
J. Michael Straczynski
|
DIRECTED BY: |
Clint Eastwood
|
RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: February 17, 2009
Theatrical: October 24, 2008
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RUNNING TIME: |
140 minutes, Color |
ORIGIN: |
USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Emotionally powerful and stylistically sure-handed, this true story-inspired drama begins small with the disappearance of a young boy, only to gradually fan out to become a comprehensive critique of the entire power structure of Los Angeles, circa 1928.
100
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
A disturbing film about grim subject matter, but the overall experience is more exhilarating than saddening. There's just something satisfying about seeing a movie so well made.
100
Empire
Damon Wise
A compelling, adult period thriller, with an Oscar-assured performance from Angelina Jolie.
91
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
Changeling doesn't care if you love it or hate it, it makes no compromises to fashion and it's charged with that unmistakable assurance of a master filmmaker at his creative peak.
90
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
In Changeling Eastwood continues to probe uncomfortable subjects to depict the individual and even existential struggle to do what is right.
90
Newsweek
David Ansen
Eastwood tells his haunting, sorrowful saga with such a sure, steady hand, only a very hardened cynic could fail to be moved.
90
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
This incredible but true story marks the first time Eastwood's signature themes have found expression in a woman's experience, and the absence of any distracting machismo only heightens his sense of helpless rage at the perpetual anguish of victims' families.
88
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Another remarkable addition to Eastwood's directorial canon.
88
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Jolie, Malkovich and Geoff Pierson, as a lawyer who takes Collins' case before the Police Board, are very good at what they do very well. The film's most riveting performance is by Jason Butler Harner as the murderous Gordon Northcott.
88
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Jolie is inspired casting. She plays the role like a gathering storm, moving from terror to a fierce resolve. And Eastwood, at the peak of his artful powers, tightens the screws of suspense without ever forgetting where the heart of his film lies.
80
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
In other hands, these clashes of good and evil might have seemed ordinary, but Eastwood makes Changeling a hard story to shake off. To see this film is to understand both how fragile and how essential our hopes for decency and truth are in a world that must be made to care about either one.
80
Film Threat
Pete Vonder Haar
Changeling is an almost universally impressive all-around effort, and is the best "dirty underbelly of Los Angeles" movie since "L.A. Confidential."
75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
The movie has an epic sweep but an intimate, personal feel. If Changeling lacks the knockout power of, say, "Million Dollar Baby," it proves that Eastwood continues to seek out stories that take him places he hasn't been before -- and the audience along with him.
75
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
Changeling fundamentally works; it holds you. But these issues of texture and detail matter too, and they hold clues as to why Eastwood's latest is a good, solid achievement rather than a great, grieving one.
75
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
Eastwood creates a tone that's at once stately and unsettling, allowing a lot of breathing room for Jolie's sad, unyielding performance. She anchors a film that needs an anchor the further it goes along.
70
The New Yorker
David Denby
Changeling is beautifully wrought, but it has the abiding fault of righteously indignant filmmaking: it congratulates us for feeling what we already feel.
70
Time
Richard Corliss
In its purposeful accumulation of depravities, both individual and institutional, the director's non-style has an honorable payoff that's rare in modern Hollywood cinema: the story's weight could come close to burying you in despair.
67
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
Eastwood gets all noirish for us but, like Jolie's performance, there's a rote quality to it all. Even the mournful little ditties that Eastwood composed for the soundtrack seem canned.
63
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
While components of Eastwood's film are excellent, in particular Kelly's quietly tenacious performance and the evocative period details, Changeling is a film of parts, not a unified whole.
63
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
While Straczynski should be commended for remaining reasonably true to the historical record, this results in an open-ended conclusion that isn't entirely satisfying.
63
USA Today
Claudia Puig
While the neo-Gothic tale is inherently intriguing, the film should inspire strong emotion, but deliberate pacing and a contained sense of melodrama make it a surprisingly passive experience.
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
No matter how strange it gets, or how distorted for political gain or refined for religious purposes, its essence is hard to pin down, even after a 2 1/2 -hour search.
63
TV Guide
Jason Buchanan
Perhaps with a few more drafts, the filmmakers could have found a means of maintaining the quiet momentum displayed early on, but as it stands, Changeling is little more than a frustrating missed opportunity that's dressed to the nines, but a day late for the party.
60
Slate
Dana Stevens
All of Eastwood's rigorous craftsmanship seems wasted on a movie whose message never rises above the bumper-sticker admonition that "mean people suck."
60
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
The script is compelling, the direction confident, the production values professional. But it does not, in the end, feel real.
50
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
The truth about the case of Christine Collins is so shocking and dramatic that embellishment must have seemed pointless, but in sticking so close to the historical record, Mr. Straczynski and Mr. Eastwood have produced a distended, awkward narrative whose strongest themes are lost in the murky pomp of period detail.
50
Washington Post
John Anderson
Despite a mysterious title, Changeling isn't a mystery. It is, occasionally, agony.
50
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
Burdened by a convoluted script and an ensemble-proof leading lady, the director fails to illuminate a particular corrupt system.
50
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
The trouble with Changeling is that it plays less like reality than like a bare-bones, moralistic rehash of other, better movies, such as "L.A. Confidential" or "Frances."
50
Dallas Observer
Ella Taylor
Biblically classical, tastefully vintage with aerial shots of wet umbrellas and Homburg hats and not a little staid considering its sensational source material, Changeling isn't so much dull as it is an open book.
50
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
As Changeling strains toward its mawkishly optimistic conclusion, the old-fashioned moviemaking that Eastwood settled into doesn't suit either him or his star. It feels like a corny joke.
50
Portland Oregonian
M. E. Russell
An extremely weird and frustrating viewing experience. I think it's that way because Eastwood, 78, can't be bothered to wrangle the vast material into a tighter shape.
50
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Eastwood's grim handling of even grimmer subject matter could have used some paring down toward its histrionic ending, but Changeling is still one of the director's most assured and engaging historical horror shows.
50
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
The result is a film that plays like a creaking melodrama, with good guys and bad guys and precious little in between.
40
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
A glum, listless affair that springs to life now and then, only to sag back into its saggy, depressive cushion.
38
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
A brazen title card declares this " true story." (Wow, not even "based on.") However many facts may be accurate, the movie feels contrived, with climax piled upon climax.
30
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
J. Michael Straczynski's disjointed script manages to ring false at almost every significant turn (Collins' psychiatric-hospital stay has grown into a latter-day version of "The Snake Pit") and Clint Eastwood's ponderous direction -- a disheartening departure from his sure touch in "Letters From Iwo Jima" and "The Bridges of Madison County" -- magnifies the flaws.
30
New York Magazine
David Edelstein
It would be a horrific story even if underplayed, but Eastwood shoots it like a horror movie.
The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 51 User Votes
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