Changeling (2008)

Eastwood At His Most... Normal?

There are some stories in life, real stories, that all of us have either heard about, witnessed or experienced at one point (or several) in our lives. Stories that make you think if you had come across them in a novel or a movie, you would find them ridiculous and implausible. You would think that it was simply too much, that the story was being manipulative and that the writer was trying too hard to impress that he/she wrote a preposterous story to draw attention. You would think that the story was 'overdone'. But such stories do exist and they are real; and there is nothing left for you to criticize if you read them off of a newspaper; no plot holes, no cliche moments, no emotional exploitation, nothing.

That's why the caption 'A True Story', which is the first thing we see in the movie, is extremely necessary.

Writer J. Michael Straczynski went through a lot of pain to make Changeling deserve that caption, instead of the more common 'Based On A True Story' version, which is thrown around a lot these days even if the writers twists and bends the real story into unrecognizable shapes. It has been mentioned on MovieMaker that roughly 95% of the whole script was based on articles, testimony, transcripts and correspondence from the period and that only the psychopathic ward sequences were fictional. Straczynski decided, wisely, that the story itself was moving enough that he didn't need to enhance it any further with his imagination. On the contrary, he stripped all the details regarding Gordon Northcott's abusive family and his late realization that his sister was actually his mother. Changeling is the kind of story where reality had to be chopped off at parts to make it more digestible. It is very similar, in this sense, to An American Crime, an equally good film also based on such reality.

When it comes to directing, there is only one thing to celebrate about Clint Eastwood in this film: his decision to go along with what Straczynski had intended when writing the script and avoid all sorts of tricks that the cinematic language is capable of performing, in favor of simplicity. He assumes the position of a technical coordinator more than an auteur director; his work feels automated in the sense that if we didn't know in advance who the director was, it would be hard to tell Changeling was his. I read, after watching the film, that Ron Howard was first hired to direct but scheduling conflicts led to his replacement by Eastwood. I don't think we would have seen a film any different than this, if this replacement had not taken place.

That being said, Eastwood's level of comfort escalates to the level of lacking any style whatsoever, at which point all the traces of his presence in the making of this film is removed. This is simply wrong. There are nuances and delicacies to even making a simple-looking film and telling a straight story, of which Eastwood does not display any knowledge. While his choice to stay away from all sorts of cinematic decorations was correct, I highly doubt it was a conscious one. He does not know how to turn this idea into a characteristic language and instead produces an ordinary directorial work, not unlike most of his other films. Throughout Changeling, I just couldn't shake the feeling that he couldn't wait for this one to be over so that he could start shooting Gran Torino, in which he seems to have invested much more (and which seems to be paying off much better at this point).

Thanks to solid performances from everyone involve, to the amazing real-life story of Christine Collins and the meticulous work of Straczynski, Changeling is still quite a good film and definitely the kind of work that starts off the Oscar race at an advantageous position. Eastwood, on the other hand, disappoints me once again.

7/10

Note: This article is a part of the 2008 awards season review series which will be the primary feature of The Long Take until the Oscar Night. The information below will be updated as listed awards are handed out and more nominations are announced.

Nominated For:

• Best Achievement in Art Direction (James J. Murakami & Gary Fettis) - Academy Awards
• Best Achievement in Cinematography (Tom Stern) - Academy Awards
• Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Angelina Jolie) - Academy Awards

• Best Actress (Angelina Jolie) - Chicago Film Critics Association Awards

• Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Drama (Angelina Jolie) - Golden Globes
• Best Original Score (Clint Eastwood) - Golden Globes

• Actress of the Year (Angelina Jolie) - London Critics Circle Film Awards

• Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role (Angelina Jolie) - Screen Actors Guild Awards

• Golden Palm (Clint Eastwood) - Cannes Film Festival

• Best Cinematography (Tom Stern) - BAFTA Awards
• Best Costume Design (Deborah Hopper) - BAFTA Awards
• Best Director (Clint Eastwood) - BAFTA Awards
• Best Editing (Joel Cox & Gary Roach) - BAFTA Awards
• Best Leading Actress (Angelina Jolie) - BAFTA Awards
• Best Production Design (James J. Murakami & Gary Fettis) - BAFTA Awards
• Best Original Screenplay (J. Michael Straczynski) - BAFTA Awards
• Best Sound - BAFTA Awards

• Excellence in Costume Design for Film, Period (Deborah Hopper) - Costume Designers Guild Awards

• Excellence in Production Design, Period Films (James J. Murakami) - Art Directors Guild