Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Changeling

I just watched the movie Changeling by myself tonight. It was a good movie, but I wouldn't recommend it to certain people (you know who you are). It was probably one of the saddest movies I have ever watched, made worse because it was a true story.

7 comments:

lizS said...

are you talking to ME?! i am not some delicate flower, i'll have you know. i'm TOUGH. i'm STEEL. i'm NOT going to watch that movie though. ;)

Mary said...

I know. It's by choice, not because I warned you not to.

timpani76 said...

So, I read the synopsis of this movie, and since I'm not going to watch it either, what happened in this movie?

Mary said...

Whole synopsis of the movie. !Complete spoiler alert!This single mother's son goes missing in March of 1928. 5 months later, the cops tell her that they've found her son in DeKalb, IL. They bring him home, and the press is there waiting when he gets off the bus. She looks at him and tells the officer that he is not her son. The officer tells her that the boy has changed in 5 months, and that it really is her son, and that once she takes him home, she'll realize that yes, it is him. Under pressure from the police and not knowing what else to do, she allows the papers to take her picture with this kid and takes him home. But after 3 weeks, she knows for certain that he's not her kid, not just because she knows, but because he's 3 inches shorter than her son was 5 months ago among other things. She goes back to the police and insists to them that they have sent the wrong child home to her. The police accuse her of shirking her responsibilities as a mother and then send a doctor over to her house who tries to explain away all of the reasons that she thinks this boy is not her son.

A local Presbyterian minister that has a radio show and is constantly exposing corruption in the LAPD hears about her plight and comes to talk to her about it. She tells him all she wants is to find her boy, and as long as the police insist that her son's case is closed, they are not looking for him. He helps her put together evidence proving that this boy is not her son, such as having a dentist compare teeth, and his teacher give him some tests ("What is my name?" and "Go sit at your desk." which he can't do) and both would swear in a court of law that this boy is not her son. She takes it to the press, and is scheduled to go on the minister's show to discuss this issue to try to force the police to start looking for her boy again. The cops find out about it and pick her up, try to intimidate her into admitting her "mistake." When that doesn't work, they have her committed to the mental ward of the local hospital.

At the hospital she is subjected to all the indignities that mental patients were subjected to those days. When she tries to insist that she's being framed by the cops, they give her the opportunity to prove she's not crazy by signing a retraction of her accusations against the police. While she's there she meets several other ladies that were locked up by the cops for making inconvenient accusations against the department or people in it. Meanwhile the minister is trying to figure out what happened to her, because she has disappeared.

While she is in the psych ward, this Canadian kid is picked up by the cops from a farm in a town not too far from LA, and he is slated to be deported back to Canada. While in custody he tells the cops that he was being forced by his adult cousin, who owned the farm, to kill little boys. He talked about how they would convince children to get into their car, then they'd take them back to the farm and kill them. He said they must have killed at least 20 boys. The police man gave him a stack of pictures of missing kids, and one of the pictures he picks out of the stack is the missing son of this lady. They drive him out to the farm and tell him to show them where the bodies are. He does. Anyway, then things really get bad for the police, because there's reason to believe that her boy was killed by these people, and they have locked her up in the mental hospital.

Anyway, the minister finds her, and they get the best lawyer in town to take up her case pro bono and go after the cops. They spring her from the hospital, and come back a day or two later with a warrant for all of the ladies that the police had tossed in there. The killer goes on trial for murdering a bunch of little boys and he gets death. The day before he goes to the gallows, he sends a message to the lady promising to tell her what happened to her boy. So she goes to see him, and he renegs on his deal. He goes to his death crying like a little girl. The little boy that impersonated her son turned out to be a runaway from Iowa who wanted to see LA.

She never did find her boy.

Pretty sad movie. Very disturbing. I couldn't sleep after I watched it. :(

timpani76 said...

Thank you! I read the synopsis, and they said it was based on a true story. For the life of me, I could not figure out how this could happen in real life! You explained it very well, I can see that happening now.

Still, very sad, sorry you could not sleep ;)

timpani76 said...

I meant for that emoticon to read sad :( not secretly happy that you could not sleep! Sorry!

Mary said...

ROFL Timpani! You make me laugh!