Changeling

I watched Changeling tonight and was gripped by this tense and dark movie. It is a true story and has no happy ending, no mitigating light moments. It is a true horror film, if you can imagine for one second being caught up in the events of this one woman's life.

I enjoyed Slumdog Millionaire and believe it deserved attention for an original episodic structure and unusual setting. But the events of Changeling are true, and Eastwood creates a tightly woven narrative of several different threads, bringing it all together in the end. It is amazing that so much was actually discovered about the fate of the main characters.

Perhaps one of the more shocking scenes, although not the most horrific, shows Angelina Jolie being manipulated into responding to an interrogation in the mental institution in such a way that her insanity is a sure outcome. As another inmate explains, if you respond evenly you are then "depressed," if you smile you are called "inappropriate" and so on. There is no right answer and incarceration is the reward for not saying what the police want you to say. It is worth watching as a piece of social history.