• Starring: Angelina Jolie, Colm Feore
  • Summary: 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) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 38
  2. Negative: 3 out of 38
  1. 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.
  2. The script is compelling, the direction confident, the production values professional. But it does not, in the end, feel real.
  3. 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.

See all 38 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 34 out of 45
  2. Negative: 8 out of 45
  1. TF
    6
    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. Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  2. Solid performances by the cast but the thing about the movie is that it never really gets interesting. It doesnt capture you the way it should have and that is disapointing. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. PaulC
    0
    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. Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes

See all 45 User Reviews

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