DVD Pick: Changeling

Strong in every area of filmmaking, Changeling (2008) received nominations for three Academy Awards: Best Actress, Art Direction and Cinematography. The supporting cast is topnotch, and the movie was directed by Clint Eastwood, who also composed the evocative musical score. The film is a dramatization of an intriguing true story that took place in Los Angeles in 1928.

The central character is Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), a working-class single mother who comes home from her job one day to discover her nine-year-old son Walter has gone missing. A few months later, the corrupt LAPD delivers to Christine a boy they insist is Walter, but she knows is not. Soon she finds herself incarcerated in a psychiatric ward. Meanwhile, an investigation is conducted that leads to a creepy serial killer.

Angelina Jolie received an Oscar nomination for her performance, yet her presence in the movie is arguably one of its weakest elements. On the one hand, the actress gets her character's facial expressions and body language right, and her line delivery is impeccable. But on the other, Jolie is such a force of nature that some audience members will have difficulty suspending disbelief with her in the role of an ordinary working-class 1928 woman.

However, Eastwood's directorial skills keep everything in balance so that Changeling is overall a very good film. The movie leaves us with a memorable portrait of a self-serving, corrupt system and two individuals who buck it: a crusading Presbyterian minister (John Malkovich) and a dogged police detective (Michael Kelly).

The only bonus materials on the Changeling DVD are two video featurettes with a total runtime of 18 minutes.

"Partners in Crime: Clint Eastwood and Angelina Jolie" is a reasonably interesting 13-minute making-of. The screenwriter, J. Michael Straczynski, talks about discovering transcripts at Los Angeles City Hall of Christine Collins hearings dated October 1928. Eastwood, producer Brian Grazer, the costumer and the production designer all speak briefly about making the film. Jolie, Malkovich, child actor Gattlin Griffith and several other actors discuss what it is was like to work with Eastwood.

The other extra is the five-minute "The Common Thread: Angelina Jolie Becomes Christine Collins," which contains some information about the lead actress' wardrobe, including the 1920s-style jacket with a dropped waist, a cloche hat and a 1930s dress she wears toward the end of the movie. Those were clip-on roller skates she wore in the scene where her character was working as the supervisor of a group of telephone operators.

Below I have listed all the details for the DVD containing Changeling.

Release Date: February 17, 2009
Feature Film Runtime: 2 hours 21 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for Some Violent and Disturbing Content, and Language
Widescreen (2.40:1), Color
English Dolby Digital 5.1
French Dolby Digital 5.1
English Captions for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Spanish Subtitles
French Subtitles
Partners in Crime: Clint Eastwood and Angelina Jolie (13 min.)
The Common Thread: Angelina Jolie Becomes Christine Collins (5 min.)