Movie Reviews: 'Changeling' powerful, while 'Expelled' explores creationism

As an actor, Clint Eastwood has often been accused of misogyny or even all out misanthropy. His most famous character, "Dirty Harry" Callahan, was a hard-boiled, no-nonsense cop.

But as a director, critics have often noted that Eastwood's work - from "Play Misty for Me" to "Breezy" to "Mystic River" - has had a decidedly feminist bent.

With his latest effort, "Changeling," he once again aims from the female point of view and delivers a film that is at times unpleasant to watch but always gripping.

Angelina Jolie as the main character, Christine Collins, has that intense Angelina Jolie look (with the eyes and the lips and the cheekbones), but it serves a purpose here that may make this Jolie's best performance of her career.

The film is "a true story," although research has shown that some major facts have been changed. Movies need to get some sort of normalcy to their nomenclature. There's "a true story," "based on a true story," "inspired by a true story" and on and on. But rarely does a film follow history without utilizing the director's poetic license.

"Changeling" opens in 1928 with Christine as a single working mother, a situation not as common then as now. She comes home from work one day to find her son, Walter, missing.

After a few months, the police bring Christine some good news: They have found her son.

The bad news, which sets up the drama for the story, is that when she goes to the train station to pick up her son, the boy is not hers.

The police will have none of Christine's protests, and eventually there is a court order issued to put her in an insane asylum. This part of the film is a cross between "The Snake Pit" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Eastwood is unrelenting in his direction, and then things get even worse.

The character of Gordon Northcott (Jason Butler Harner) is introduced, and we enter something akin to "In Cold Blood" or a documentary of Ed Gein.

The going gets rough, and "Changeling" is a film that will make you jitter. I turned my head more than once.

But it's a powerful piece of work and presented in Eastwood's always economic, upfront style.

"Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed"

I'll endeavor to review "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" on its merits (and lack of) that don't deal with the science versus creationism that is at the heart of the matter. Anyone interested in the subject should investigate all of the arguments. But it would be more enjoyable to see a film that didn't look like it was shot and edited by a first-timer with a consumer grade video camera and editing software.

Cinema vérité camerawork is fine and an accepted style, but the film's director/cameraman Nathan Frankowski is ham-fisted by any standard. Editor Simon Tondeur's style goes from annoying to nearly seizure inducing. There is no "flow" to any of the relentlessly repetitive scenes.

As for the content, it's worth considering. There are people who think the universe is just 5,000-6,000 years old (some comedian once noted these folks think "The Flintstones" was a documentary ...), and they have their say here.

Writer/star Ben Stine - who is a comedian and former Richard Nixon speechwriter (is that redundant?) - is the anti-Michael Moore.

It's granted that every film Moore has made has been slanted to the left. Nearly every documentarian has an ax to grind. But some grind their axes with more skill than others.

A case in point would be Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will." It's an amazingly well-made, even beautiful, film despite the fact it's pro-Hitler propaganda.

For anyone with an interest in the subject matter, I'd say "Expelled" is a must-see. And for anyone who wants a lesson in technically horrible moviemaking, it is, again, a must-see.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield freelance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.[[In-content Ad]]