The Changeling

An amazing film detailing multiple tragic stories, paralleling them for a while, making the audience wonder what's up, and in the end, like a mighty crescendo, bringing them together.

Thanks to Clint Eastwood, director and composer - for this remarkable piece - not an "enjoyable" film - but an important story being retold, and as in all such stories, themes and ideas that remain relevant: power and its abuses, women and men of conscience and courage, determination and a positive role for a Presbyterian pastor taking on the city of LA (I'm a Presbyterian pastor in LA, so it resonated well for me).

Angelina Jolie is the missing boy's mother - she's good much of the time, but I felt her performance lacked convincing depth at some critical moments. Hard to put into words, but not serious enough to detract from an over-all fine performance in a very large story with many characters.

John Malkovich portrays the Rev. Gustave Briegleb who's taking on the city's corruption through a radio program - he captures the passion and danger of social criticism. Briegleb is a semi-fictional character, an amalgam of two pastors ( who were companions in their effort to clean up the city.

In the film, several real life characters are merged for the sake of the story. In the film Briegleb is depicted as a radio preacher, though none of the 176 times mentions of him between 1921 and 1943 in the Los Angeles Times cite that ministry. Briegleb was a colleague and friend of Methodist minister R.P. Shuler, who did conduct a radio ministry.

Briegleb and Shuler were community activists and partners in challenging the vice and crime of the city and the corruption of the police and city officials (from a review by Ed McNulty)

Jason Butler Harner portrays a serial killer - a powerful role that reminded me of Jarvier Bardem in No Country for Old Men.

The story is sweeping, almost epic, in size, but driven by a very simple theme - a mother's love and a mother's hope.

Her boy kidnapped. A police investigation. A gala moment at the train station when her "son" returns from DeKalb, Illinois. But he's not her boy. The police, already embarrassed by numerous scandals, hush her up, finally arranging for her commitment to a mental institution as she continues to protest.

The film had me feeling her despair - will no one listen? Am I crazy? What's going on here?

An involved story with plenty of twists and turns, it reminds the audience: Don't give up!

The story ends on a sad note (though all the evidence points to her son's death, she remains hopeful that he's alive somewhere).

A movie for thought - not for pleasure, though Eastwood's film-making is a pleasure to watch.