'Changeling' review

Angelina Jolie (Credit: Tony Rivetti Jr./Universal)

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Resilient single mother Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) turns to the police for help after her young son, Walter (Gattlin Griffith), is kidnapped in 1920s Los Angeles. A break in the case leads Christine to believe her son has been discovered, but when she goes to greet him she immediately realizes the boy (Devon Conti) isn’t actually her son. Fearful of bad publicity, Chief James E. Davis (Colm Feore) and Capt. J.J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) close the case, ignoring Christine’s protests and forcing her to care for the boy while her real son remains missing. Most disturbing of all, this is based on a true story.

The buzz: Director Clint Eastwood has enjoyed a stretch of critically acclaimed dramas (“Mystic River, “Million Dollar Baby,” “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters From Iwo Jima”) but it wasn’t so long ago that he botched the movie version of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” and made forgettable mysteries like “True Crime” and “Blood Work.” So when “Changeling” premiered to divisive reviews at the Cannes film festival, it was easy to believe it might either be a great movie or a dud.

The verdict: Not one of Eastwood’s best films, but an engrossing tale nonetheless, “Changeling” is all the more compelling for its stranger than fiction credibility. Among its finer points is a commanding old-fashioned star turn by Jolie. She doesn’t completely disappear into the character, but her delicately forceful work keeps an extraordinary tale emotionally grounded. When the film falters it’s usually in scenes involving the various villains, and the hammy work of a few supporting players only underscores how one-dimensional all of the characters are. That’s a limitation that leaves the film significantly short of the L.A. crime movie heights of “Chinatown” and “L.A. Confidential.”

Did you know? The film's events begin in 1928 and end in 1935, when Eastwood was just four years old.

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