Shawn's Changeling Review

2008 Movie #161 - Changeling

Now we're getting back to the good stuff. I had wanted to see this movie for a while but only had the chance to sit down and watch it yesterday afternoon. This is one hell of a movie that I really hope gets a good chunk of nominations at Oscar time. I think Jolie should be up for Best Actress, Eastwood for Best Director, Costume Design, even Best Picture maybe. I really hope to be seeing a lot of this one.

To begin with, I really liked the story for this movie. I like that it's based on a true story that I would say 99% of the population most likely aren't familiar with at all. It's cool that there are stories like this that haven't been told in a movie yet. The story keeps you interested and is very well told. It's powerful stuff man, powerful stuff.

I've already touched on the performances a little bit but let's get back to that for a moment. Jolie is great in this movie. It's weird to watch Wanted and go on to this one because they are two very, VERY, different roles for her. At least we know she can act now. My respect for her went up infinitely after this one. It was also very cool to see John Malkovich playing a good guy. I don't think that's ever happened before. He may play a good guy who is also creepy, but never just a flat out good guy, so I enjoyed that as well.

This movie also made me mad, but in a good way. Remember how in my Gran Torino review I mentioned how rare it is to actually hate the bad guys in a movie? Well I fucking HATED them in thsi one. I mean I wanted to walk into the actual movie and just start kicking the shit out of everyone. All of the cops and doctors are just so fucking smug and assholey that it drove me insane. I wanted Jolie to expose these assholes more than I wanted to be alive. Good job Changeling, it's not easy to ge tme that fired up.

All in all, this is great stuff. Great story, excellent performances and characters so well written you just want to fucking stab them in the face.

**** 1/2 / 5