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—— A Green Story May 24
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—— After Earth May 31
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100% The Kings of Summer May 31
89% The East May 31

Changeling (2008)

tomatometer

62

Average Rating: 6.3/10
Reviews Counted: 194
Fresh: 121 | Rotten: 73

Beautifully shot and well-acted, Changeling is a compelling story that unfortunately gives in to convention too often.

48

Average Rating: 5.7/10
Critic Reviews: 44
Fresh: 21 | Rotten: 23

Beautifully shot and well-acted, Changeling is a compelling story that unfortunately gives in to convention too often.

audience

84

liked it
Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 208,708

My Rating

Movie Info

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

R,

Mystery & Suspense, Drama

J. Michael Straczynski

Feb 17, 2009

$35.7M

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All Critics (196) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (124) | Rotten (74) | DVD (8)

It's a tough movie but also rewarding and inspiring: something of a quiet triumph.

November 28, 2008 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Eastwood, who has made fine movies in recent years, has got hold of a humdinger of a story. But he's too detached and lazy here.

November 10, 2008 Full Review Source: Film.com
Film.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Clint Eastwood's Changeling falls into a common trap: by trying to do too much, it accomplishes too little.

October 31, 2008 Full Review Source: ReelViews | Comments (6)
ReelViews
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This is one movie where the star really is the star. And delivers a performance of which any actress can be truly proud.

October 31, 2008 Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger
Newark Star-Ledger
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

October 31, 2008 Full Review Source: Miami Herald
Miami Herald
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It is a misfire, a silly and borderline absurd story that cannot excuse its twists and turns with the simple 'a true story' declaration that opens the film.

October 31, 2008 Full Review Source: Detroit News | Comments (5)
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Rich in authentic-looking period detail and punctuated with powerful acting, Eastwood's tale holds you in its firm, grim grip.

September 28, 2011 Full Review Source: American Profile
American Profile

Jolie is alternately distraught and outraged (in good ways) but Eastwood's film is an odd mix of genres that never quite settles into the one we want to watch.

May 17, 2011 Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews
rec.arts.movies.reviews

It's a gripping tale, as infuriating as it is jaw-dropping at times, but it also becomes a frustratingly sprawling one here.

September 4, 2009 Full Review Source: Times-Picayune
Times-Picayune

Dreary, Oscar-or-die vehicle

August 26, 2009 Full Review Source: CinePassion
CinePassion

A long cry from her typically one-dimensional heroine roles in films such as Wanted and Tomb Raider, Angelina Jolie proves she is more than just a gun-wielding sex symbol.

August 1, 2009 Full Review Source: Moviedex
Moviedex

It's a strangely arid piece of filmmaking, handsome, respectful, unsensational and thoroughly lifeless.

March 2, 2009 Full Review Source: Miss FlickChick | Comments (4)
Miss FlickChick

Angelina delivers a fearless performance in a film that is far from conventional, but oh so lovely to look at.

March 1, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinema Sight
Cinema Sight

Universal's high-definition presentation is excellent ....

February 16, 2009 Full Review Source: DVD Review
DVD Review

The film ... becomes more of an examination of ... the misogynistic contrivances movie heroines have consistently been put through for audience entertainment.

February 16, 2009 Full Review Source: DVD Review
DVD Review

The disc's extras include a substantial featurette on the making of the film and a profile of star Angelina Jolie and her character in the movie.

February 13, 2009 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide
Apollo Guide

The story's impact is reduced by the filmmakers' decision to make everyone who is part of 'the system' not just complicit in the conspiracy, but also lacking humanity.

February 13, 2009 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | Comment (1)
Apollo Guide

Exceedingly commendable and daring fact-based Hollywood filmmaking. And resonant with an integrity and uncompromising truth certain to give the best of outsider indies a run for their money. A seasoned Hollywood screenwriter couldn't make this stuff up.

February 13, 2009 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze
NewsBlaze

There are moments when it seems as if it wants to be an inspirational story about a person who refuses to be beaten by a corrupt system -- but it doesn't, in the end, settle for the uplifting narrative.

February 13, 2009 Full Review Source: The Age (Australia)
The Age (Australia)

Every element, including the photography, the production design, and Eastwood's own plaintive music score, seems close to perfection.

February 13, 2009 Full Review Source: At the Movies (Australia) | Comments (2)
At the Movies (Australia)

A crime saga strictly for the very gullible.

February 12, 2009 Full Review Source: BlackFilm.com | Comments (5)
BlackFilm.com

Changeling will engage both your fears and compassion, I have no doubt. And it will stay with you long after vou have left the cinema.

February 6, 2009 Full Review Source: MovieTime, ABC Radio National
MovieTime, ABC Radio National

This is an Oscar-calibre performance from Angelina Jolie. She conveys a sense of grief, desperation, fear, sadness and determination that is absolutely palpable.

February 5, 2009 Full Review Source: FILMINK (Australia)
FILMINK (Australia)

Audience Reviews for Changeling

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.
December 8, 2009
emilkakko

Super Reviewer

Changeling is the true story of a young mother in 1920s America whose son goes missing, but when the wrong boy is returned to her she is persecuted by a corrupt police force trying to avoid public embarrassment. Another beautifully crafted and intelligent drama from Clint Eastwood, Changeling is quite an unbelievable story. It highlights the dreadful, uncaring hypocrisy of corrupt officials, the appalling treatment of the mentally ill of the time, not to mention those "hysterical" women who were committed to avoid embarrassment or inconvenience. The period is meticulously recreated and the plot combines the story of a woman unshakably seeking justice against enormous odds and the investigation into a harrowing serial killer case. The cast are all of course quality, apart from the fact that although she turns in in quite a creditable performance, you can never quite forget you are in the presence of Her Jolieness rather than witnessing actual events. The result is leagues ahead of the hand wringing melodrama that missing child stories usually entail and serves both as an intriguing mystery and cautionary tale about human indifference to the suffering of others.
July 12, 2008
garyX
xGary Xx

Super Reviewer

    1. Christine Collins: Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.
    – Submitted by Jerky S (14 months ago)
    1. Christine Collins: Never start a fight, but always finish them.
    – Submitted by Chad E (18 months ago)
    1. Chief James E. Davis: Better a short inconvenience than a lingering problem.
    – Submitted by Chad E (18 months ago)
    1. Det. Lester Ybarra: Nobody can just up and kill 20 kids, okay?
    2. Sanford Clark: We did.
    – Submitted by Chris P (2 years ago)
    1. Det. Lester Ybarra: It's raining cats, dogs, and democrats out there, this better be worth it.
    – Submitted by Chris P (2 years ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • Der fremde Sohn (DE)
  • The Changeling (CA)
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