Changeling Movie review

I have watched this movie a few times and even though it’s a bit monotonous, it never bores me. I feel like Angelina can never go wrong, she can make any movie a box office hit. I watched it on TV and that requires me to pay extremely attention because I can’t pause or rewind it. I am pretty sure I didn’t miss anything and this time a lot of things became clear which allowed me to finally write this movie review.

 

The movie starts by showing how Jolie is such a good mother and a strong woman. On one of the first scenes her son asks her something about his dad. She kindly explains that his dad left using an analogy. She tells her son that when he was born, he came in a box and something else came with him – responsibility. The whole movie you feel pity for her not only because she is a single mom but it has this atmosphere that tells you that something awful is going to happen.

 

She looks like she doesn’t look for anything in life, as she only works to support her son and that’s all she cares about. One day, as she is leaving work, her boss asks her to do something or is trying to talk to her about something. She seems late or worried, like her mother instincts told her that something happened to her son. She gets home and finds her son missing.

 

She informs the police and a whole investigation starts. A few months later they call her and tell her they found her son. You know it can’t be true because the movie just started. She gets to the train station and the boy is definitely not her son. To be honest, he looks like him but it’s obviously that it’s not him because of her reaction. She denies him but they ask her to pretend that it’s him alleging that she is in shock and that the boy needs a home. She goes along with it but at home she easily spots the differences: the height, his manners and so on.

 

As the time goes by she begs the boy to tell the police that he is not her son but he refuses. I swear there is something wrong with that kid. Who pretends to be someone’s son? While trying to convince the little devil, she also tries to persuade the police and they ignore her. At some point, they tell her that if she continues to deny the boy, they will consider her crazy and throw her at some mental institution. That’s where you wonder how come police have so much power. What they eventually do to her looks like just a dramatization of a movie but trust me it happens in real life.

 

She goes look for help from other sources, she is suggested to see a guy who has been battling the LA police for years. He instantly believes her and supports her. She also gathers testimonies from her son dentist, a teacher and everyone who were in contact with her son; and they all confirm that the boy it’s not her son. She seems to be winning but unfortunately she is kidnapped and taken to a mental hospital.

 

That mental facility looks like a fancy Rikes Island (America prison) for woman. How can people treat others like that? Sometimes I think we are all evil and we find pleasure from torturing others, either with words or actions. There, she be friends with a lady who shares with her the atrocities of that place and gives her a few tips. She said  “The more you try to act sane, the crazier you start to look. If you smile too much, you are delusional or you are stifling hysteria. If you don't smile you are depressed. If you remain neutral you are emotionally withdrawn, potentially catatonic.” I feel like her statement basically summarizes real life.

 

She goes through hell, they constantly drug her and give her a revolting treatment, at some point I dare to think that they even raped her. You wonder why the people (police and medical practitioners) who vowed to protect us are the ones who constantly put our lives in jeopardy. And you finally realise that the movie was not about the disappearance of her son, instead, police brutality, human rights and what people in power are capable of doing to get what they want.

 

I used to mistake the title ‘Changeling’ to ‘Channelling’, because I felt like the movie was a medium to end police incompetency and corruption. Then I thought it was ‘Challenging’ because she challenged the police. I finally decided google the word ‘changeling’ and I was surprised to find out that it means ‘a child believed to have been secretly substituted by fairies for the parents' real child in infancy’. That’s why I love movies, you learn something new every single time – it’s a motion picture library.

 

I wish there were fairies in this movie, at least they could win against the heartless people in nice suits who constantly abuse their power. They are despicable! You actually start to question people in general, especially watching that child pretending to be her son. Brace yourself to know why the kid pretended to be her son – he wanted to go to LA to see his favourite actor. Disgusting!

 

In the end, they found a random kid that confessed to be part of a chain of murders done by a serial killer. Apparently, a mentally ill man kidnaps kids by driving around the neighbourhood, and picking them up claiming that their parents sent him. The kids instantly trust him because he is accompanied by another kid (the one who came forward). I wonder how he can be considered ‘mentally ill’ when he came up with such a smart plan.

 

 

The boy was never found!