Changeling (film)

Changeling is a 2008 American mystery crime drama film directed, produced, and scored by Clint Eastwood. The script was based on real-life events, specifically the 1928 Wineville Chicken Coop murders in Mira Loma, California. The film stars Angelina Jolie as a woman united with a boy who she realizes is not her missing son. Changeling premiered to critical acclaim at the 61st Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2008. It was released in North America on October 31, 2008; in the United Kingdom on November 26, 2008, and in Australia on February 5, 2009.

About Changeling (film) in brief

Summary Changeling (film)Changeling is a 2008 American mystery crime drama film directed, produced, and scored by Clint Eastwood and written by J. Michael Straczynski. The script was based on real-life events, specifically the 1928 Wineville Chicken Coop murders in Mira Loma, California. The film stars Angelina Jolie as a woman united with a boy who she realizes is not her missing son. Changeling premiered to critical acclaim at the 61st Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2008. It was released in North America on October 31, 2008; in the United Kingdom on November 26, 2008, and in Australia on February 5, 2009. It earned USD 113 million in box-office revenue worldwide – of which USD 35. 7 million came from the United States and Canada – and received nominations in three Oscar and eight BAFTA Award categories. It has been described as a “masterclass” in low-key direction. The acting and story were generally praised, but the film’s “conventional staging” and “lack of nuance” were criticized. It is the first film by Eastwood to be produced by Imagine Entertainment, a company he co-founded with Brian Grazer and Robert Lorenz, and Universal Pictures, which distributed the film. It also stars Jeffrey Donovan, Jason Butler Harner, John Malkovich, Michael Kelly, and Amy Ryan. While some characters are composites, most are based on actual people. In the film, single mother Christine Collins returns home to discover her nine-year-old son, Walter, is missing.

She is vilified as delusional, labeled as an unfit mother, and confined to a psychiatric ward. Several months after Walter’s disappearance, the LAPD tells Christine that the boy has been found alive. The LAPD organizes a public reunion. Although the boy claims he is Christine’s son, she says he is not. After Christine confronts Jones with physical discrepancies between Walter and her son, Jones arranges for a medical doctor to visit her. He tells her that Walter is three inches shorter than before his disappearance because trauma has shrunk his spine, and that the man who circumcised him had him shorter than Christine. A newspaper implies Christine is an mother; Briegleb tells Christine it was planted by police to discredit her. Dr. Steele says he will release Christine if she admits she was mistaken about Walter. Christine tells her story to the press; as a result, Jones sends her to Los Angeles County Hospital’s ward, where she isfriends inmate Carol Dexter, who tells Christine she is one of several women who were sent there for challenging authority. In post-production, scenes were supplemented with computer-generated skylines, backgrounds, vehicles and people. Actors and crew noted that Eastwood’s low- key direction resulted in a calm set and short working days. Eastwood decided that Jolie’s face would suit the 1920s period setting. The film also starred Jeffrey Donovan.