Changeling (2008)
Where to Watch
- Before Angelina Jolie was cast, several major A-list stars turned down the lead role because they felt the script was too risky.
- During the filming of Changeling, Angelina Jolie improvised one of the most famous lines in the movie.
- Clint Eastwood originally wanted a completely different ending for the film, but test audiences preferred the one we see today.
Changeling is a 2008 American crime drama directed by Clint Eastwood, based on the true story of the 1928 Wineville Chicken Coop Murders. Angelina Jolie stars as Christine Collins, a single mother in Los Angeles whose nine-year-old son Walter disappears. Five months later, the LAPD returns a boy they claim is Walter โ but Christine immediately recognizes that the child is not her son.
When she protests, the corrupt police captain, played by Jeffrey Donovan, has her committed to a psychiatric ward, labeling her delusional rather than admitting the department's incompetence. A crusading Presbyterian minister, played by John Malkovich, takes up Christine's cause. Angelina Jolie's performance captured both the fragility of a mother's desperation and the steel of a woman who refuses to accept a lie, earning her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
The film exposed genuine historical corruption in the LAPD and the practice of institutionalizing women who challenged male authority. Changeling earned $113 million worldwide on a $55 million budget.
