Changeling (2008)

Changeling is one of the highpoints in Clint Eastwood's multitalented career. It is one of those rare films that at the first glance might actually seem something very different than it turns out to be.
What first begins as a mystery and a story about the corruption within police forces, soon turns into a most disturbing horror-films i have ever seen in my life and goes from there to unexpected direction. Still with all the different elements, feelings and tones mixed into together, Eastwood manages to make it a balanced whole.
This is surehanded filmmaking at it's very best. Eastwood does not have a need for any trickery or special-effects as a filmmaker. He trusts his story, which is fantastically written by J. Michael Straczynski, so much that it is enjoyable to see how well he opens the story bit by bit.
In my opinion the story of Christine Collins is one of the saddest and remarkable true stories ever told on a big-screen and one which Angelina Jolie plays out magnificently. Angelina Jolie finally claim all the potential and expectations that there has been for her. Collins' pain, grief and ordeal feels very authentic because of Jolie's fantastic ability to show such an range as an actress. She truly is one of the greatest actors of today.
To see such a confident storyteller like Eastwood once again proving his mastery behind camera is also such a delight. He is one of the cinema's true masters and Changeling clearly is one of his most important films to date. There are similiar themes found in the story here than there was in his equally grim and disturbing Mystic River. They both shows us multiple storylines and sew them together through horrible crime in the center of the story. Both Mystic River and Changeling also deals about one of the most horrifying crimes imaginable and that is a stealing of the innocense of a child.
But where Mystic River was more film about complex police investigation, Changeling goes even further with it's themes and turns into pure horror somewhere in the middle. I believe that this is the closest thing Eastwood has ever come with that genre and possibly ever will. I will not go into details of those scenes, but i can tell you that they are some of the most disturbing moments in the history of cinema. In many ways Eastwood's style to handle these scenes reminds me of David Fincher's equally sophisticated and chilling style in his brilliant Zodiac. These are both films that does not need to shock audiences with blood and violence, they both do it by atmosphere. Changeling is a film where Eastwood has put all the themes that he has analyzed in his earlier films into this one epic story and actually succeeds in it quite remarakably.
For me Changeling was quite a experience when i saw it the first time. It took me into a journey which was completely unpredictable and that is one of it's finest aspects. It is a film that is in many ways unexpected and mysterious. It has unique power to amaze and be even more richer experience with each viewing. At times it does certainly go over the top with it's melodramatic moments but the emotional punch of it cannot be denied.
As a director Clint Eastwood has become one of the world's most important filmmakers in past ten years and a one with the biggest heart too. Changeling is a bit too polished at times and suffers from being an artificial with it's presentation of it's era, but it still is a effective cinema worth to see.