November 4th, 2008

So this week was one of those rare occasions that I actually had a chance to go out and see a REAL movie at a REAL movie theatre.   The movie:  Changeling.  The Theatre:  Colossus.   It was a fairly busy night on Saturday to see the 7:10 show, yes, although I am an adult I still have a 4 yo who needs to get to his bed after a long day.   Ex-wife had really wanted to see this one, and it turns out her sister and her husband saw the same movie at a different theatre on Saturday.   I enjoyed this movie and the performances.   As an actor I think it would be hard to take on the Jolie role here as you are constantly being asked to get emotional and tear up.   It would be a difficult shoot for her.   As a storyline, I liked the arc and where it went.  I was surprised at a couple of the turns.  It is more disturbing to see that this is a true story, and that there was an continues to be tremendous powers in the police force.   Unfortunately all of the bad stories seem to come out of the LAPD.   But I have little doubt other such stories exist elsewhere at the same time.    I had a couple of questions for this film however, like how does a single woman with a child manage to get a mortgage for a house in 1928?   I saw no family to speak of to help her out or co-sign for the mortgage.  Presumably if your child disappeared, you would have parents and others for support.   I further noted the one gaff in the print where it was evident that Angelina’s tattoo (one of many) on her back was clearly visible.   I will not go further into this story than to say that I think that Clint Eastwood in his latter years is putting together an impressive body of work.   Jolie has a very good performance here and could likely garner some Academy support for it.   I would not be disappointed if she did.   This story incidentally brings forth a notion that I have always maintained in that there have always been freaks and ‘bad people’ but in older times we were not so aware of them.  Yet again, southern California has been home to a number of them.   By sheer population increase alone (California has as many people as in all of Canada), we would have more of these freaks, but it is not to say that our children are in any more danger or any safer than before.   Missing children and the attitude surrounding them has undergone some change with Amber alerts and the like, but there is still that feeling in police departments I suspect that searching for a young child is not a top priority.   As a parent, this is disconcerting.