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.

Burn After Reading

A very good film ... lots of ironic laughs ... subtle and rather dark as it unfolds, brought to us by Cohen Brothers (Ethan & Joel). Some critics have panned it, saying that it "fails to ignite" - hardly! If you're looking for out-and-out slap-stick, go to "Step Brothers."

"Burn After Reading" actually takes you places and gives you something to think about even as it provides plenty of laughs. Perhaps it requires a level of thought or sophistication to appreciate the skillful manner in which the story is told and the characters revealed. All right?

This is a story of bumbling people bumbling their way through love and life (do we every really do any differently) - managing to do some serious damage along the way. If the film has message, it's likely this: play with fire, ya' get burned, and burned badly!

An all-star cast wonderfully restrained and comically intense.

Brad Pitt is terrific as a gum-chewing, not-too-bright, slightly whatever, physical trainer (Chad Feldheimer) who cooks up a scheme to extort money from a CIA analyst after he discovers on the gym's locker room floor a CD with apparently valuable information.

Francis McDormand is terrfic as "Linda Litzke" (echos of her Fargo twang) who wants to meet a man and finally decides she needs some physical enhancements. The only problem being: her insurance won't pay for for the surgeries. So when "Chad" shows her the CD, she's in.

Richard Jenkins (gym manager, Ted Treffon) portrays wonderfully the wounded soul who so badly wants to date Linda who "shuts him out all the time." Ultimately, after Chad disappears, Linda gets Ted to sign-on to steal more information from the CIA analyst.

The CIA analyst is played wonderfully by slightly loony John Malkovich who's wife, "Katie" (Tilda Swinton) is having an affair with George Clooney - "Harry Pfarrer."

"Katie finally decides to seek a divorce so she and Harry can get married, but Harry's not so sure now. In an effort to secure her husband's financial records, Katie burns a CD, which her attorney's secretary leaves in the gym - see above.

Clooney, by the way, is terrific - the slightly simple gun-totin' playboy, with some remnants of a conscience left, profoundly paranoid - he's right - and in one fine explosive scene near the end, he bolts from the park bench where he and Linda have become a number (they met on an internet dating service), exclaiming, "Who are you? Who do you work for?" when he discovers that Chad, the guy she's looking for, and he, with his "connections," is helping, learns that he disappeared at Katie's house. In his mind, it's all some horrible CIA plot, and he's smack dab in the middle of it.

Are we complicated enough yet?

After the shooting and the ax murder are done and the bodies disposed of, two CIA officers are discussing the case - a great scene of CIA a operative (David Rasche) hesitantly reporting delicate matters to a blunt, only-the-facts, superior (J.K. Simmons).
"Well, what did we learn?"
"Not to do it again."
"If only we knew what we did."

In the end, so to speak, Linda gets her operation.
And Harry is on his way to Venezuela "because we don't have an extradition agreement with them."

A lot of good laughs, some terrific acting - worth seeing, that's for sure.