L'Echange

A formally smooth drama with a strong premise, hurt a little but an overly sweeping and inconsistent script. There are chilling and breathtaking scenes followed by more protracted ones, which somewhat bothered, because they don’t carry on with what the previous scene set up. I’d compare it to a car waiting at a traffic light: as soon as it starts, it has to stop again, and again. Angelina delivers a solid, though not Oscar-worthy performance (see Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road). The very fitting music is also worth mentioning, in the last shot it builds a very strong background with similar results as in Gran Torino (you’ll know if you’ve seen it). Changeling is a very good film, but I can’t give it the highest rating because some of this year’s Oscar hopefuls have had a bigger effect on me. (2009-01-09)

Clint Eastwood with fragile piano music is the Danielle Steel of serious topics. But for topics as serious as those addressed in Changeling, and especially for tying them together in some meaningful way, a big heart alone is not enough. (2009-01-15)

A solid Straczynski drama with decent production design, and interesting direction, but also a strange performance by Angelina and a few hobbling a-historical issues. In summary, however, I can recommend Changeling, and perhaps thanks to it younger people will understand who Tom Mix and Claudette Colbert were. (2014-05-12)

Disappointed I certainly am not, as I got exactly what I expected. Eastwood masters his craft reliably and chose such an attractive topic that it represents a sure bet within the US and world cinema, so to speak. The loss of a child, corruption and the incompetence of authorities, as well as police harassment against a fragile defenseless woman, the rampage of a psychopathic violent person, civil activism, and the expected victory of justice and democracy over corrupt individuals. The system is saved again, and we move on. In the first half, when the protagonist is crushed by the pressure of events and one marvels at the absurdity of the conditions in America at the end of the 1920s, it works very well, and my rating reflects that. However, after the drama moves to the courtroom, it becomes a standard, typically American, predictable spectacle according to the formula tried and tested many times. Overall, for me, it gets a 3.5-star rating, with my tradition of leaning toward a lower rating for such an acclaimed film. The casting of Angelina Jolie in the lead role also plays a certain role in that. I don't particularly care for her. Overall impression: 65%. (2013-03-01)

There are simply too many thoughts and intentions for one film. A missing child, police corruption and inconsistency, a Ken Kesey-like mental hospital drama, a trial to justify a scapegoat and punish a murdering monster... Only Eastwood can indulge in that, and he doesn't fall short at any point, but the excessive runtime and uneven pacing are proof that more intimate and purely genre stories in the style of A Perfect World or Gran Torino suit him better as a storyteller. The script in itself isn't bad, but it lacks credibility in some of its individual parts, whether in the half-hearted depiction of an evil and irrational police or medical staff, or in the circumstances surrounding the child murders, which lack virtually any motive or explanation. Nevertheless, this is an excellent film, emotionally colourful, visually authentic and psychologically mature, with a sweetly depressing piano soundtrack and a wonderful Angelina Jolie, who traded the face of a tough action heroine for the tortured expression of a betrayed yet hard-fighting mother – a shame for the guys, a stroke of luck for the film... 80% (2012-07-02)