Changeling

Blu-Ray Review: Clint Eastwood’s ‘Changeling’ Features Great Performance By Angelina Jolie

BrianTT — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:49:23 -0700

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – I usually don’t agree with suggestions that certain movies need to be seen twice to be appreciated. If a movie doesn’t work on first viewing, then it simply doesn’t work. Having said that, watching Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling” a second time on Blu-Ray made me appreciate the final product significantly more than my disappointed reaction to it in theaters.

What struck me about the first time I saw “Changeling,” starring Oscar-nominee Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan, Colm Feore, Amy Ryan, and Jason Butler Harner, was the disjointed storytelling in the film and the way the black and white themes don’t play into Eastwood’s strengths as a director.

Angelina Jolie stars in Clint Eastwood’s Changeling
Photo credit: Anthony Michael Rivetti

Eastwood has always been at his best when his films deal with gray areas of behavior and morality. “Unforgiven,” “Mystic River,” “Million Dollar Baby” - all of these films feature characters caught in complex moral situations. Sometimes good and bad can reside in the same troubled soul and very few filmmakers have captured that in drama like Eastwood.

Angelina Jolie stars in Clint Eastwood’s Changeling
Photo credit: Anthony Michael Rivetti

J. Michael Straczynski’s screenplay for “Changeling” is missing that complexity and subtlety that has marked Eastwood’s best work. In “Changeling,” characters are pure good, pure evil, pure heroism, or pure corruption.

And the film fluctuates wildly in styles, trying to be a drama, women’s rights story, period piece, and thriller all in one. There’s a fine line between making trying to make an unpredictable one and making one that feels disjointed and I think “Changeling” sometimes crosses that line.

Watching it a second time and being able to put those issues aside, I was able to appreciate Eastwood’s film more than I did in theaters. What felt disjointed on the big screen with only one viewing, feels more ambitious on Blu-Ray and it’s easier to get over the lack of gray area when you know not to look for it.

“Changeling” is a brutally dark, upsetting true story of a single mother in 1920s Los Angeles. Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) was living an ordinary life until she came home from work to find her son missing. The LAPD at the time was already knee-deep in bad PR due to increasing corruption and couldn’t handle more bad press. They returned another orphaned child to Ms. Collins and tried to convince her that he was her son.

Collins knew immediately that the boy was not hers - differences in height and circumcision are pretty obvious signs - but Captain J.J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) and the rest of the police force ignored her until they eventually threw her in a psychiatric hospital to keep her quiet. Only the powerful radio figure Reverend Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich) kept her story alive long enough for the shocking truth to come out.

Angelina Jolie gave one of the best performances of 2008 in “Changeling,” taking a part that would have been tragically melodramatic in the wrong hands and making subtle, interesting decisions instead of descending into great hysteria. Jolie is fantastic and she makes the film worth at least a rental on Blu-Ray.

Having said that, I still think “Changeling” is a bit of a missing opportunity. Trying to tell so many stories in the film’s 141 minute running time makes everyone a bit two-dimensional. The police force must have realized at some point that they were doing something wrong, but they are painted as two-dimensional villains, draining the film of believability. There’s a complex, character-driven mini-series in this amazing true story that has been reduced to just the essentials and anchored by one central, riveting performance.

Angelina Jolie stars in Clint Eastwood’s Changeling
Photo credit: Anthony Michael Rivetti

The design of “Changeling” looks great in HD and the precise and detailed costumes and art direction should impress in 1080P, but I do wish the world felt more lived-in than backlot. Everything about “Changeling” looks too good and not quite realistic. The pretty picture of the Blu-Ray release mesmerizes until it dawns on you that admiring the design keeps it and the film as a whole at arms length.

Technically, “Changeling” is good but not one of Universal’s best. The blacks and blues often blend a bit too much in the film’s many darker scenes and, in general, the picture doesn’t pop like you think it would. The audio is similarly right around average with an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track.

U-Control is still my favorite studio Blu-Ray function on the market and “Changeling” makes smart use of it, providing interactive cast and crew interviews and behind-the-scenes footage using the Picture in Picture feature. U-Control also allows the viewer to see pictures of “Los Angeles: Then and Now” as the story unfolds to compare the city as it was in the ’20s to the sprawling metropolis today. Archival images and documents are also presented through U-Control allowing the viewer access to the real-life individuals and story portrayed in the film.

Two HD features - “Partners in Crime: Clint Eastwood and Angelina Jolie” and “The Common Thread: Angelina Jolie Becomes Christine Collins” - round out the Blu-Ray release of “Changeling”.

Ultimately, “Changeling” is a good film that I wanted to be great in theaters but it’s easier to forgive the film’s flaws with a studio as great as Universal producing its Blu-Ray release.

‘Changeling’ is released by Universal Home Entertainment and stars Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Amy Ryan, Jeffrey Donovan, Colm Feore, and Jason Butler Harner. It was written by J. Michael Straczynski and directed by Clint Eastwood. It will be released on February 17th, 2009.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

Anne Hathaway ‘Randomly,’ Inadvertently Awarded Early Golden Globe For ‘Rachel Getting Married’

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:10:11 -0700

CHICAGO – At least one “Web site technician” for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) revealed a secret crush on Anne Hathaway’s lead role in “Rachel Getting Married” when the worker “randomly” awarded the actress an early Golden Globe two days before the official NBC telecast.

For a very short period of time, a star was noticed indicating Hathaway as the winner on the official Web site of the Golden Globes for her against-type role as a recovering junkie in “Rachel Getting Married”.

If the star stands, she’d best a powerhouse of other actresses in the lead-actress category including Angelina Jolie for “Changeling,” Meryl Streep for “Doubt,” Kristin Scott Thomas for “I’ve Loved You So Long” and Kate Winslet for “Revolutionary Road”.

Anne Hathaway in “Rachel Getting Married”.
Photo credit: Sony Pictures Classics

Quickly after the snafu went public, the HFPA posted the following whoopsie notice on Jan. 9, 2008 on its Web site:

In the process of preparing for Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards, a technician working on the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Web site made a mistake and a name of a nominee was randomly marked as a winner. The mistake was immediately corrected.

The ballots are tabulated by the accounting firm of Ernst & Young LLP. Only four executives of the accounting firm know the identity of the winners before the envelopes are opened and recipients are announced during the live telecast.

No one else – including the members of the HFPA – knows who the winners are prior to the live announcement.

The 66th-annual Golden Globes will air on NBC at 8 p.m. EST on Jan. 11, 2009. The full official list of Golden Globe nominees can be found below.

Read the official results of the 66th-annual Golden Globes.
Read more HollywoodChicago.com articles on the Golden Globes.

Best Motion Picture, Drama
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“Frost/Nixon”
“The Reader”
“Revolutionary Road”
“Slumdog Millionaire”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama
Anne Hathaway, “Rachel Getting Married”
Angelina Jolie, “Changeling”
Meryl Streep, “Doubt”
Kristin Scott Thomas, “I’ve Loved You So Long”
Kate Winslet, “Revolutionary Road”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama
Leonardo DiCaprio, “Revolutionary Road”
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon”
Sean Penn, “Milk
Brad Pitt, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”

Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
“Burn After Reading”
“Happy-Go-Lucky”
“In Bruges”
“Mamma Mia!”
“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Rebecca Hall, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
Sally Hawkins, “Happy-Go-Lucky”
Frances McDormand, “Burn After Reading”
Meryl Streep, “Mamma Mia!”
Emma Thompson, “Last Chance Harvey”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
Javier Bardem, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
Colin Farrell, “In Bruges”
James Franco, “Pineapple Express”
Brendan Gleeson, “In Bruges”
Dustin Hoffman, “Last Chance Harvey”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Amy Adams, “Doubt”
Penélope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
Viola Davis, “Doubt”
Marisa Tomei, “The Wrestler”
Kate Winslet, “The Reader”

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Tom Cruise, “Tropic Thunder”
Robert Downey Jr., “Tropic Thunder”
Ralph Fiennes, “The Duchess”
Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Doubt”
Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”

Best Animated Feature Film
“Bolt”
“Kung Fu Panda”
“Wall-E”

Best Foreign Language Film
“The Baader Meinhof Complex” (Germany)
“Everlasting Moments” (Sweden, Denmark)
“Gomorrah” (Italy)
“I’ve Loved You So Long” (France)
“Waltz With Bashir” (Israel)

Best Director, Motion Picture
Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Stephen Daldry, “The Reader”
David Fincher, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Ron Howard, “Frost/Nixon”
Sam Mendes, “Revolutionary Road”

Best Screenplay, Motion Picture
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (written by Eric Roth)
“Doubt” (written by John Patrick Shanley)
“Frost/Nixon” (written by Peter Morgan)
“The Reader” (written by David Hare)
“Slumdog Millionaire” (written by Simon Beaufoy)

Best Original Score, Motion Picture
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (composed by Alexandre Desplat)
“Changeling” (composed by Clint Eastwood)
“Defiance” (composed by James Newton Howard)
“Slumdog Millionaire” (composed by A. R. Rahman)
“Frost/Nixon” (composed by Hans Zimmer)

Best Original Song, Motion Picture
“Down to Earth,” “WALL-E” (lyrics by Peter Gabriel)
“Gran Torino,” “Gran Torino” (lyrics by Jamie Cullum)
“I Thought I Lost You,” “Bolt” (music/lyrics by Miley Cyrus and Jeffrey Steele)
“Once in a Lifetime,” “Cadillac Records” (music/lyrics by Beyoncé Knowles, etc.)
“The Wrestler,” “The Wrestler” (music/lyrics by Bruce Springsteen)

Best Television Series, Drama
“Dexter” (Showtime)
“House” (FOX)
“In Treatment” (HBO)
“Mad Men” (AMC)
“True Blood” (HBO)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Drama
Sally Field, “Brothers & Sisters” (ABC)
Mariska Hargitay, “Law & Order”
January Jones, “Mad Men” (AMC)
Anna Paquin, “True Blood” (HBO)
Kyra Sedgwick, “The Closer” (TNT)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series, Drama
Gabriel Byrne, “In Treatment” (HBO)
Michael C. Hall, “Dexter” (Showtime)
Jon Hamm, “Mad Men” (AMC)
Hugh Laurie, “House” (FOX)
Jonathan Rhys Meyers, “The Tudors” (Showtime)

Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy
“30 Rock” (NBC)
“Californication” (Showtime)
“Entourage” (HBO)
“The Office” (NBC)
“Weeds” (Showtime)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Musical or Comedy
Christina Applegate, “Samantha Who?” (ABC)
America Ferrera, “Ugly Betty” (ABC)
Tina Fey, “30 Rock” (NBC)
Debra Messing, “The Starter Wife” (USA)
Mary-Louise Parker, “Weeds” (Showtime)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series, Musical or Comedy
Alec Baldwin, “30 Rock” (NBC)
Steve Carell, “The Office” (NBC)
Kevin Connolly, “Entourage” (HBO)
David Duchovny, “Californication” (Showtime)
Tony Shalhoub, “Monk” (USA)

Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
“A Raisin in the Sun” (ABC)
“Bernard and Doris” (HBO)
“Cranford” (PBS)
“John Adams” (HBO)
“Recount” (HBO)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Judi Dench, “Cranford” (PBS)
Catherine Keener, “An American Crime”
Laura Linney, “John Adams” (HBO)
Shirley MacLaine, “Coco Chanel”
Susan Sarandon, “Bernard and Doris” (HBO)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Ralph Fiennes, “Bernard and Doris” (HBO)
Paul Giamatti, “John Adams” (HBO)
Kevin Spacey, “Recount” (HBO)
Kiefer Sutherland, “24” (FOX)
Tom Wilkinson, “Recount” (HBO)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Eileen Atkins, “Cranford” (PBS)
Laura Dern, “Recount” (HBO)
Melissa George, “In Treatment” (HBO)
Rachel Griffiths, “Brothers & Sisters” (ABC)
Dianne Wiest, “In Treatment” (HBO)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Neil Patrick Harris, “How I Met Your Mother” (CBS)
Denis Leary, “Recount” (HBO)
Jeremy Piven, “Entourage” (HBO)
Blair Underwood, “In Treatment” (HBO)
Tom Wilkinson, “John Adams” (HBO)

Read the official results of the 66th-annual Golden Globes.
Read more HollywoodChicago.com articles on the Golden Globes.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

Amy Ryan of ‘Gone Baby Gone,’ ‘The Wire’ Signs Onto New Episodes of NBC Hit TV Show ‘The Office’

HollywoodChicago.com — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:22:52 -0600

CHICAGO – Amy Ryan’s star just keeps rising. The breakout actress from HBO’s “The Wire,” who was nominated for a Golden Globe and Academy Award for her role in “Gone Baby Gone,” will be featured in at least five episodes on this coming season of NBC hit TV show “The Office”.

Amy Ryan from “Gone Baby Gone,” “The Wire” and “The Office”.
Photo credit: (source)

In season four’s finale of “The Office” (entitled “Goodbye, Toby”), Amy Ryan’s character (Holly Flax) took over the HR position from Toby Flenderson (played by Paul Lieberstein).

With the 2007 finale being her first episode, Holly was teased as a potential love interest for branch boss Michael Scott (portrayed by Steve Carell). Last week, Carell signed on to do three more seasons of “The Office”. Ryan and Carell appeared together in 2007’s “Dan in Real Life”.

“I don’t know what they’re going to do with the character,” Ryan said in a Sunday Variety report, “but as it was written, there’s certainly a lot of potential. It’s a funny thing to enter a show … you’re a great fan of and it’s nice to tell lighter stories. I love the dark, grittier side of life, but it’s nice to take a break from that, put a skirt on and brush your hair.”

Though the fan-favorite Toby is gone from the screen, Lieberstein – a writer and actor on the show since the first season – will continue on as an executive producer through the fifth season of “The Office”. Lieberstein added in the Variety report: “Amy gave the character of Holly an openness and matured innocence that exposed a new side of Michael. She placed her character right on his level.”

Ryan has more projects set for the big screen including “Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone” and Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling”.

By DUSTIN LEVELL
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
dustin@hollywoodchicago.com