John’s Movie Musings

Here’s what I did not know about Changeling:  Clint Eastwood directed it.  And it was written by J. Michael Straczynski, who you may recognize as the man behind Babylon 5.  None of you know what I’m talking about, I know, but Babylon 5 was a Sci-Fi series back in the day that had some of the best writing of anything on TV – as well as the worst.  If it were a Baskin Robbins flavor, it would be Awesome Crappy Swirl.  Or something.  Yeah, that joke sucked.

Changeling, however, does not suck.  Angelina Jolie plays a mom who loses her son one day.  After several weeks, the cops find a boy halfway across the country and say he’s hers.  In a history-making moment, Angelina turns down an orphan and says the boy isn’t hers.  But this is the 1920s when men could smack their women and be thanked for it.  A time Jon Gosselin would appreciate, I think.  …Too soon?  Anyway, the cops tell Angelina she’s crazy.  The boy is hers and she just needs to accept the fact that the LAPD is awesome.

Thus begins an absolutely insane story.  By now, I’m sure your BS Meter is going off the charts.  This can’t have possibly happened, but sadly it did.  History is even more bizarre than what’s in the film, if you can believe that.  At several points during Changeling, you will take your favorite four-letter word and use it in an exclamatory question.  Trust me.

The third act drags on a little too long, but this is definitely worth a rental.  I wished there was some bonus features about the real case, but no luck.  I had to turn to Wikipedia.  That’s fine, though, because you’ll end up at the same place.

Grade: B+