Add This to Your Queue: Changeling

Before the Oscars, I tried to watch as many nominated films as possible. The one I rather enjoyed more than expected was Changeling.

Based on a true story, Angelina Jolie stars as Christine Collins, a single mother in 1920's LA who's son is kidnapped. The LAPD, being the harbingers of all things good and just, replaces her son with another kid. Obviously, like any normal human being, Collins knows they've given her a faux son and she is, understandably, pissed the hell off. Of course, being the LAPD, they call her a crazy, bad mother. Good to see things have changed.

Clint Eastwood directs and does a fantastic job capturing "Old LA" (this, along with Chinatown and LA Confidential, is one of the great "Old LA" films), Angelina still manages to separate her larger than life celebrity and is believably heartbreaking, Burn Notice's Jeffery Donovan is an excellent bad guy, but it's the performances buy the kids that really got me, especially Eddie Alderson as Stanford Clark, a kid who's done some very bad things. I imagine the strong female centric themes in Changeling moved me more than they would someone of the less fair sex, but I'd recommend it to everyone. It's becoming hard to go wrong with Eastwood.