Taexalia

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Changeling and other films

Tonight we went to the cinema in what has become a weekly ritual, although today, I am pleased to say, we were not driven there out of necessity - we simply decided an early evening movie is quite a nice thing to do. Even when you are still as sickeningly (to other people) madly (goes with the territory I'm afraid) truly (truly) and deeply (censored) in love with the person you fell instantly in love with at first sight more than six years ago, sometimes it still takes an elephant in hobnail boots above your head to remind you that going on dates is just a good thing, OK. (no comments please on the elephant or I will have to invoke the password!)

Tonight's movie has been a long time coming since our generally unplanned excursions so far this year have managed to include the only film that has ever made me fantasise about being one of the extras (as oposed to the gorgeous and acclaimed star) ~ The Happening. The Happening is a brilliant idea very badly executed and only contains one good scene, the one with the fake house plant - unfortunately you have to watch all the scenes leading up to it to either get it, or feel at all relieved by it...

Other things we've seen but wish we hadn't include:

Taken ~ I'm afraid it was impossible to concentrate on the storyline when faced with Liam Neeson's bizarre bouncing botox... WTF is up with all these people and growing old? Give me wrinkles, character, life stories in the face and emotions with facial movements *Please*.

Pride and Glory ~ Oh my lord in heaven above why did the entire cutting room floor end up *in* the film?

Body of Lies ~ OK this was OK but it didn't blow me away. I might actually watch it again on DVD when I haven't been zombified by having to take a Nytol the previous evening. I liked the message and a lot of the complicated stuff but I think I would have cut half of it out and gone deeper with other bits. Or something. Or maybe it was the Nytol hangover and I'm still undecided.

We also managed to totally miss the cinema showings of Batman The Dark Knight (this is unforgivable and can only mean that we need to get a 75 million inch television in place for the time when we buy the DVD)...

Tonight though we didn't find ourselves twitching in the uncomfy seats as the film dragged on ~ we didn't even notice how long it was. We didn't find ourselves comparing holes we had picked in the continuity as we caught the bus home. Tonight we had to stay in the dark until I could turn the taps in my eyes off and then join the queue in the loos, only to find myself in the company of several other women struggling to conceal their liquids under the unforgiving bright lights. Even the stench of stale pee that sadly accompanies a trip to any loo in Ocean Terminal could not detract from the *movement* that Changeling achieved.

*SPOILER ALERT*

If you haven't seen this film then stop reading and go and see it. It is beautiful and truly a horror film of the worst kind because it deals in the really horrifying ways that human beings treat each other. It is very rare these days to feel the whole cinema *emoting* together and when Christine Collins, played by the delicious Angelina Jolie, finally said "Fuck You and the horse you rode in on" there was almost a round of applause. I nominate her for every award going for that scene alone.

I remember when I watched Brokeback Mountain, for several days whatever I was doing was somehow flavoured by scenes or emotions or remnants of the film and I was moved on such a deep level. It is one of the few films that I have loved to death but been unable to watch for a second time because I'm just not ready yet.

I think Changeling will be in that league for me because it touched me on so many levels that I am even tearing up as I type. The scenes when Christine Collins is in the psychiatric hospital being driven mad to prove that she is mad is like a flashback, in some ways, to a relationship I once had. The scenes with Captain J.J. Jones had me clenching my fists as he did that thing that men still do, and talked her down to nothing to suit his own agenda. Jeffrey Donovan was excellent in the role ~ he played the character so well I wanted to stick my foot out and trip him up so that his tender parts landed on a sharp rock. Thrice.

The scenes with the boy who claimed to be Walter Collins were also gut wrenching because at once we were facing the prospect of rejecting a child who was an imposter and of rejecting our natural instinct to care for someone who is just a child.

All of this was juxtaposed with a slowly emerging backdrop depicting the utterly deranged Gordon Northcott and what came to be known as the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders ~ where one might have expected most of the horror to really be but which simply accentuated the horror being inflicted upon Collins so that bad men could continue to look like good men.

This story could have been told in so many bad ways but the cast were awesome and Clint Eastwood has done it again.

A truly excellent 10/10 film - even for the tiniest details in the set - made even more meaningful because these things actually happened.

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Posted on November 29, 2008 in Opinionated.

One Response to “Changeling and other films”

  1. linda says:
    November 30, 2008 at 12:41 am

    hi!
    I, for some strange little reason, did not think you were keeping a current blog or you were under construction or some such other thing so have not looked you up in awhile….soooo have spent a good long while reading up on your wonderful prose and stories and am happy to have followed this link …I know there were security issues and such like so , well, you know….am glad to read you again and will be back soon…your story about the whales breaks my heart, btw, what do they need to do that for? I have to do some looking into it since, I have to admit, I try and avoid it all…I want to see the changeling and then the trailers trigger me and I think, maybe not or maybe on dvd? hmmmm, jolie is supposedly superb in all ways in this and yep, I have heard old 70+ clint has outdone himself on this one….we’ll see if I get brave enough to sit through the heart WRENCHING story!

    xoxo

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