Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
66
Bandslam
45
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
29
Collector, The
23
Couples Retreat
80
District 9
61
Extract
39
Fame
xx
Fantastic Mr. Fox
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
60
Funny People
32
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
27
Gamer
41
G-Force
39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
My Sister's Keeper
42
Orphan
28
Pandorum
63
Perfect Getaway, A
86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
Proposal, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek![]()
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D![]()
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
Adela
39
Adventures of Power
78
Afghan Star
61
After the Storm
66
Afterschool
xx
All the Best
58
American Casino
72
Amreeka
48
Antichrist
73
Araya
62
Art & Copy
55
As Seen Through These Eyes
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
13
Beautiful Life, A
70
Beeswax
35
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71
Big Fan
66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76
Bliss
35
Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
Boys Are Back, The
45
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
Casi Divas
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
67
Departures
xx
Dil Bole Hadippa
71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
66
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
Heretics, The
63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Changeling

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 38 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 70 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Crime | Drama | Mystery
Written by: J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 24, 2008
DVD: February 17, 2009
Running Time: 140 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for some violent and disturbing content, and language
Starring Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan, Colm Feore, Amy Ryan, and Michael Kelly
Los Angeles, 1928: On a Saturday morning in a working-class suburb, Christine said goodbye to her son, Walter, and left for work. When she came home, she discovered he had vanished. A fruitless search ensues, and months later, a boy claiming to be the nine-year-old is returned. Dazed by the swirl of cops, reporters and her conflicted emotions, Christine allows him to stay overnight. But in her heart, she knows he is not Walter. As she pushes authorities to keep looking, she learns that in Prohibition-era L.A., women don't challenge the system and live to tell their story. Slandered as delusional and unfit, Christine finds an ally in activist Reverend Briegleb, who helps her fight the city to look for her missing boy. Based on the actual incident that rocked California's legal system, Changeling tells the shocking tale of a mother's quest to find her son, and those who won't stop until they silence her. (Universal Pictures)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Bird Blood Work Flags of Our Fathers In the Line of Fire Letters from Iwo Jima Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Million Dollar Baby Mystic River Space Cowboys The Bridges of Madison County True Crime Unforgiven
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Variety Todd McCarthy
Emotionally powerful and stylistically sure-handed, this true story-inspired drama begins small with the disappearance of a young boy, only to gradually fan out to become a comprehensive critique of the entire power structure of Los Angeles, circa 1928.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
A disturbing film about grim subject matter, but the overall experience is more exhilarating than saddening. There's just something satisfying about seeing a movie so well made.
Read Full Review >Empire Damon Wise
A compelling, adult period thriller, with an Oscar-assured performance from Angelina Jolie.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Changeling doesn't care if you love it or hate it, it makes no compromises to fashion and it's charged with that unmistakable assurance of a master filmmaker at his creative peak.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
In Changeling Eastwood continues to probe uncomfortable subjects to depict the individual and even existential struggle to do what is right.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
Eastwood tells his haunting, sorrowful saga with such a sure, steady hand, only a very hardened cynic could fail to be moved.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
This incredible but true story marks the first time Eastwood's signature themes have found expression in a woman's experience, and the absence of any distracting machismo only heightens his sense of helpless rage at the perpetual anguish of victims' families.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Another remarkable addition to Eastwood's directorial canon.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Jolie, Malkovich and Geoff Pierson, as a lawyer who takes Collins' case before the Police Board, are very good at what they do very well. The film's most riveting performance is by Jason Butler Harner as the murderous Gordon Northcott.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Jolie is inspired casting. She plays the role like a gathering storm, moving from terror to a fierce resolve. And Eastwood, at the peak of his artful powers, tightens the screws of suspense without ever forgetting where the heart of his film lies.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
In other hands, these clashes of good and evil might have seemed ordinary, but Eastwood makes Changeling a hard story to shake off. To see this film is to understand both how fragile and how essential our hopes for decency and truth are in a world that must be made to care about either one.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
Changeling is an almost universally impressive all-around effort, and is the best "dirty underbelly of Los Angeles" movie since "L.A. Confidential."
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
The movie has an epic sweep but an intimate, personal feel. If Changeling lacks the knockout power of, say, "Million Dollar Baby," it proves that Eastwood continues to seek out stories that take him places he hasn't been before -- and the audience along with him.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Changeling fundamentally works; it holds you. But these issues of texture and detail matter too, and they hold clues as to why Eastwood's latest is a good, solid achievement rather than a great, grieving one.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Eastwood creates a tone that's at once stately and unsettling, allowing a lot of breathing room for Jolie's sad, unyielding performance. She anchors a film that needs an anchor the further it goes along.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
Changeling is beautifully wrought, but it has the abiding fault of righteously indignant filmmaking: it congratulates us for feeling what we already feel.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
In its purposeful accumulation of depravities, both individual and institutional, the director's non-style has an honorable payoff that's rare in modern Hollywood cinema: the story's weight could come close to burying you in despair.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Eastwood gets all noirish for us but, like Jolie's performance, there's a rote quality to it all. Even the mournful little ditties that Eastwood composed for the soundtrack seem canned.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
While components of Eastwood's film are excellent, in particular Kelly's quietly tenacious performance and the evocative period details, Changeling is a film of parts, not a unified whole.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
While Straczynski should be commended for remaining reasonably true to the historical record, this results in an open-ended conclusion that isn't entirely satisfying.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
While the neo-Gothic tale is inherently intriguing, the film should inspire strong emotion, but deliberate pacing and a contained sense of melodrama make it a surprisingly passive experience.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
No matter how strange it gets, or how distorted for political gain or refined for religious purposes, its essence is hard to pin down, even after a 2 1/2 -hour search.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Jason Buchanan
Perhaps with a few more drafts, the filmmakers could have found a means of maintaining the quiet momentum displayed early on, but as it stands, Changeling is little more than a frustrating missed opportunity that's dressed to the nines, but a day late for the party.
Read Full Review >Slate Dana Stevens
All of Eastwood's rigorous craftsmanship seems wasted on a movie whose message never rises above the bumper-sticker admonition that "mean people suck."
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
The script is compelling, the direction confident, the production values professional. But it does not, in the end, feel real.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
The truth about the case of Christine Collins is so shocking and dramatic that embellishment must have seemed pointless, but in sticking so close to the historical record, Mr. Straczynski and Mr. Eastwood have produced a distended, awkward narrative whose strongest themes are lost in the murky pomp of period detail.
Read Full Review >Washington Post John Anderson
Despite a mysterious title, Changeling isn't a mystery. It is, occasionally, agony.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
Burdened by a convoluted script and an ensemble-proof leading lady, the director fails to illuminate a particular corrupt system.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The trouble with Changeling is that it plays less like reality than like a bare-bones, moralistic rehash of other, better movies, such as "L.A. Confidential" or "Frances."
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Ella Taylor
Biblically classical, tastefully vintage with aerial shots of wet umbrellas and Homburg hats and not a little staid considering its sensational source material, Changeling isn't so much dull as it is an open book.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
As Changeling strains toward its mawkishly optimistic conclusion, the old-fashioned moviemaking that Eastwood settled into doesn't suit either him or his star. It feels like a corny joke.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
An extremely weird and frustrating viewing experience. I think it's that way because Eastwood, 78, can't be bothered to wrangle the vast material into a tighter shape.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Eastwood's grim handling of even grimmer subject matter could have used some paring down toward its histrionic ending, but Changeling is still one of the director's most assured and engaging historical horror shows.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
The result is a film that plays like a creaking melodrama, with good guys and bad guys and precious little in between.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
A glum, listless affair that springs to life now and then, only to sag back into its saggy, depressive cushion.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
A brazen title card declares this " true story." (Wow, not even "based on.") However many facts may be accurate, the movie feels contrived, with climax piled upon climax.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
J. Michael Straczynski's disjointed script manages to ring false at almost every significant turn (Collins' psychiatric-hospital stay has grown into a latter-day version of "The Snake Pit") and Clint Eastwood's ponderous direction -- a disheartening departure from his sure touch in "Letters From Iwo Jima" and "The Bridges of Madison County" -- magnifies the flaws.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
It would be a horrific story even if underplayed, but Eastwood shoots it like a horror movie.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 70 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Scott Q gave it a6:
So when I sat down to this movie, I was expecting something great since it was directed by Clint Eastwood, even though I really wasn't that impressed by Gran Torino(aside from Clint, bad acting surrounded him). So as I start Changeling, I found myseld getting frustrated and very annoyed by the movie. I was just waiting for Angelina to start yelling at the police, but she talks so softly, I couldn't relate to how she was acting, so passive and non insistent, OH that annoyed me. Her performance is so overrated in this film. Interesting story, but I was frustrated throughout the film so I have to give it a 6, I would give Gran Torino a 5.
Randy A gave it a1:
A rating of 0 belongs to movies like Cabin Boy, Meet the Spartans and Battlefield Earth. But I am quite comfortable giving this agonizing film a 1. God forbid that Clint could be blamed for poor directing (and I love that guy!) but this film just seems to struggle and make the viewer inject fluidity by proxy (for those willing to do so). Changeling seems to not so much drown in sorrow but feel dazed and confused in its storytelling. What a sad, sorrowful and agonizing bit of filmmaking.
steven r gave it a9:
Call me naive, but If it wasn't true, I would not have believed that people could be so inconsiderate, so uncaring, so ruthless, and that LA could have been that corrupt. This film belongs to Ms. Jolie who was magnificent, Mr. Eastwood, I was engrossed from the beginning, and all those behind the scenes who made me feel like I was in the 20's and 30's. It is important for all to see: men to realize how their forefathers treated women and for women to know how brave those who paved the way were. I reserve a 10 for the greatest of all time, this is a 9.9!
Paul C gave it a0:
I feel compelled to cast my first ever viewer vote here at metacritic.com because this is absolutely one of the worst movies I've seen in my entire life. Interestingly, I knew little about the film and did not know who had directed it while watching, and was mildly shocked at the end to see Clint Eastwood's name roll through the credit as director. As much as I loved "Unforgiven", you, Clint, are unforgiven for this horrible mess of a film. Grossly overwritten, every line tries it's damnedest to impart extreme gravitas or pith. And every one of these horribly cheesy lines is delivered by a walking piece of cardboard character. Jolie, cue the tears, nominated for best actress? Please, maybe a nomination for best weight-loss not required by a role. The only engaging character of the movie was the killer himself, who imbued his part with the appropriate creepiness that this movie fully deserved. I honestly, honestly have never seen a movie with this level of budget, actors and director be so miserably overwritten, consequently overacted, with an enraging attempt at sentimentality as it desperately tries to salvage itself through emotional manipulation strangely in bed with pure shock value.
T F gave it a6:
Not as good as I thought it would be. The story is very compelling, but there is no way Jolie's performance should have been nominated for an Oscar.
Robert I. gave it a7:
Real life trumps fiction, and Eastwood's film serves us a cautionary tale drawn from actual events. When, it asks, can we ever be safe, when human malice (or evil) lurks around us? Surprisingly good.
Dan F gave it a9:
A very good movie. Jolie and Jason Butler Harner knock it out of the park. The plot that starts simple, and then branches out in numerous directions - because the true story that it is based on did the same. Although a long movie, I was intrigued throughout it.
