"The Changeling" a NOT-see.

I wanted to like it just because I love Ron Howard (producer) and Clint Eastwood (director), but....no - can't do it.

Angelina Jolie plays a mother whose son has disappeared and the police present her with an "imposter son", trying to pass him off as her own child. Seems some psycho is kidnapping children and murdering them; the police can't catch him and they need to make themselves look good. Enter...imposter child.

The problem with the movie (which is based on fact) is that Jolie and her real son never establish the emotional bond in the beginning of the movie in order to make the audience "feel" the mother's loss for her son. No connection. I mean, I didn't have a shred of empathy for her or the pain she "supposedly" was going through. I never really got it that it was HER boy who was missing - or that she cared. She could've been Mrs. Collins the Pirate for all I knew. Though her son is on-screen maybe the first 15 minutes of the film, this connection between mother-son could have certainly been accomplished in a short time span. But Jolie seems detached from the child from the beginning, so I'm thinking the fault lies with Jolie first and foremost, then with Eastwood as the director. My eyes swelled up more watching Pa Walton decide if he wants to sell Walton's Mountain to a hot springs developer.

Which, again, surprises me coming from Eastwood and Howard. Jolie was, in my opinion, terribly miscast in this role and was unimpressive, to say the least. I was gonna say that if she gets any acting nominations for this role I would forcibly choke on my own vomit (I said choke, not die). To my dismay, she's already received a Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe nomination. So, I'll have to change my wager - if she wins either one I'll choke on my own vomit (but just choke).