Eastwood gives 'Changeling' the perfect touch
"Changeling" - It doesn't get said often enough: Clint Eastwood is the coolest. His assured director's touch keeps this compelling drama from succumbing to a few glaring flaws.
The setting is 1920s Los Angeles. Single mother Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) leaves her young son at home after being called in to work unexpectedly. When she returns that evening, her son is gone. After a frantic search, police tell her they've found her boy alive and well. They present the boy to her in front of a phalanx of reporters and photographers. There's one problem, though: The boy they found isn't hers.
Christine's life turns into a nightmare as she tries to convince the authorities that they've made a mistake. The police, eager for good press after recent corruption scandals, tell her she's just exhausted from her ordeal. When she won't let up, they publicly question Christine's motives, and then her sanity. It soon becomes clear to Christine that if she persists in her quest for justice, her very life could be at stake.
Eastwood tells this remarkable tale, based on actual events, with classic, unpretentious grace. He disappears behind every shot, letting his characters take center stage. Eastwood's skill keeps the film from being sunk by a meandering script that occasionally veers into melodrama (some of the dialogue made me cringe) and an uneven, showy performance from Jolie, who somehow snagged a Best Actress nomination for her work here. In the end, this is a tough film to forget, and I hope the 78-year-old master behind it has a lot more work left in him. "Changeling" looks great on DVD, but the disc is disappointingly light on extras. A brief making-of featurette does offer a few glimpses of Eastwood at work, though. (R; Universal, $28.98)
"Body of Lies" - Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe save this surprisingly conventional spy thriller. They play CIA colleagues on the front lines of the war on terror, and they bring a crackling energy to the overcooked and occasionally ridiculous story. Veteran director Ridley Scott gives the movie a pleasant gloss and smoothly guides us through the many locations (Iraq, Jordan, Washington D.C.) and twists of the plot, but he left me waiting for him to turn this generic material into something more. I'd say rent this one. The single-disc DVD, which is the version I screened, comes with no extras. A two-disc set is also available. (R; Warner Home Video, $28.98)
"The Midnight Meat Train" (unrated director's cut) - Back in the 1980s, British horror writer Clive Barker was a hero to geeky teenagers like me. The short stories in his now-classic collection "The Books of Blood" were darker, sexier and weirder than any other horror fiction of the time. Hollywood's treatment of Barker's work has been spotty, though, and "The Midnight Meat Train" counts as another misfire. Based on one of those early short stories, the film stars former British soccer star Vinnie Jones as a killer who spends his days working as a butcher and his nights prowling for victims on a subway train. Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura delivers some stunning sights here, but he goes way overboard with the computer-generated gore. The script, meanwhile, pads the original story with a slew of horror-film clichés. The DVD does offer some nice extras, including a candid talk with Barker about his work and this film. (NR; Lionsgate, $28.98)
Also out this week - "Flash of Genius" (Universal); "Religulous" (Lionsgate); "Choke" (Fox); "High School Musical 3" (Disney).