Is Changeling a scifi/fantasy movie?

[broberfett]

Is that Angelina Jolie movie Changeling a scifi/fantasy type of supernatural mystery or is it just a drama about a crazy lady?

 

[Starbreaker]

It's a kidnapping drama.

 

[Hermiod]

A quick skim of the Wikipedia entry suggests neither. I didn't know JMS wrote it though.

 

[broberfett]

I recorded it, but have a fear that it will waste two hours of my life. Has anyone here seen it and did you enjoy it?

 

[Hermiod]

I haven't seen it, but it got great reviews, especially JMS' script and three Oscar nominations.

At worst, you will have wasted two hours watching Angelina Jolie.

 

[mandragora]

It's got nothing to do with either Science Fiction or Fantasy. It's a period piece dealing with a kidnapped kid and a serial killer, and the corruption of the LAPD in the 1930s.

Great reviews - especially for the script? That's not what RT suggests. I thought the script was pretty mediocre. The best part is Jolie, who was rightfully nominated for an Oscar.

 

[Nerys Myk]

It'd also based on actual events, as the saying goes.

 

[Steve Roby]

It starts off reasonably well, with what should be a compelling story --

Spoiler: Changeling

a single mother's son disappears, and to avoid political embarrassment, the inept police force presents her with a kid who's obviously not her son, then gets her locked up as insane for denying the kid is her son.

But the structure of the movie just falls apart after a while, with a series of false endings. Every time you think, okay, the story's been resolved, JMS says, no, wait, and then THIS happened! And then THIS happened! It doesn't build to any kind of climax, it's just one damn thing after another. By the time it was over I'd been ready for it to be over for 45 minutes or more.

 

[Neroon]

Since it's pretty well established that Changeling is not a SFF film, I'm sending this over to TVM for further discussion about the film.

 

[John Clark]

It also has the chap from Burn Notice in. I can't say I enjoyed the film though.

 

[Starbreaker]

I liked the film. Definitely a great script and great acting, but 30 minutes could have been edited out.

 

[Stardate]

I watch it couple of weeks ago and i thought it was a great movie. They could have perhaps trimmed it little better but really it wasn't that long (142 min).

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

One of the rare films that my girlfriend and I were in complete agreement on. Very overrated and quite mediocre. Based on a true story, but one of those films where everything is so overplayed it gets into corniness and self-parody.