Turgid Eastwood, sprightly Leigh, confused Stone, messy Demme, mediocre Levinson

By: FS

Posted: 10/28/08

Clint Eastwood fires a near-miss with "Changeling" (Northpark), a moody, melancholy period drama based on a notorious child abduction case in 1928 Los Angeles.
The so-called Wineville Chicken Coop Murders involved a man who kidnapped children and took them to his family's ranch, where he tortured and killed them. The film concentrates on one of the victims, whose mother created a stir when she challenged the police identification of a boy whom they returned to her. The mistreatment of the woman, who was committed to a brutal psychiatric clinic by the chief investigator because of the bad publicity that fell on the department, led to an official investigation of then-widespread police corruption after the capture of the murderer had proven her right.
This is a fascinating story, but in Eastwood's hands it's portrayed so slowly and somberly that one suspects he's more interested in showing off the period ambience his crew has so carefully contrived than in dramatizing the events. And his focus on the suffering of the mother, played by Angelina Jolie, with special emphasis on her grim "hospitalization," makes the picture seem like a Joan Crawford tearjerker from fifty years ago.
One can easily admire the craftsmanship that went into "Changeling," but ultimately its slow pace and heavy-handedness make it more respectable than compelling.

British writer-director Mike Leigh makes his pictures in a unique way: he and his hand-picked cast effectively write the script through long periods of improvisational rehearsal, which determine whether they're dark dramas (like "Naked") or charming entertainments (like "Topsy-Turvy").
In "Happy-Go-Lucky" (Magnolia) Leigh has fashioned one of his most high-spirited crowd-pleasers, a tale of a Pollyanna-like schoolteacher who always looks on the bright side of things and tries to make matters better when she encounters unhappiness or pain.
There's a sad and somewhat frightening side to the picture, particularly in an extended episode involving the heroine's encounters with a mean-spirited driving instructor she hires after her bicycle's been stolen. And episodes involving a troubled student and a homeless man have a distinct edge.
But inevitably the picture returns to joyous scenes of jumping on trampolines, taking flamenco lessons with a hilariously intense Spanish teacher, entering a blissful romance with a social worker, or taking boat rides in a park, and the essentially positive perspective takes over again.
Buoyed by wonderful performances, this is a film about a character who could easily have become annoyingly addle-brained. But instead it's a good-natured winner about a woman you'll willingly root for.

Oliver Stone's "W." (wide release) is, after "JFK" and "Nixon," his third picture about a president, but the first to appear while the subject is still in office.
It falls somewhere between a curiously sympathetic portrait of a guy who aims too high as a result of his need to compete with a distant, perpetually critical father, and a satirical take on a president who's in totally over his head and succumbs to manipulation and simplistic solutions.
Josh Brolin brings some welcome depth to his take on Dubya, James Cromwell makes an imposing George H.W. Bush and Richard Dreyfuss does a spot-on impression of Dick Cheney, but most of the talented cast come off as though they were doing a series of "Saturday Night Live" sketches.
"W." isn't the hatchet job Stone's critics might have expected, but it isn't terribly enlightening either.

Jonathan Demme's "Rachel Getting Married" (Magnolia) is being extravagantly praised and will probably win lots of year-end awards.
But the fly-on-the-wall, cinema verità-style film, about a big family wedding turned into a contentious mess when a drug-addict daughter returns from rehab to serve as maid of honor and brings up the memory of the tragedy that's haunted the clan for years, really becomes quite irritating as it meanders through the preparations, the ceremony and the ensuing reception.
Anne Hathaway, usually seen in lighter fare, does show her dramatic mettle as the troubled daughter. But apart from her, Demme's picture is one that the cognoscenti may praise but regular viewers will find a bore.

Barry Levinson, whose films one could once actually look forward to, has hit a dry patch in recent years. He stages a modest comeback with "What Just Happened?" (Angelika), but it's not enough to rescue his Hollywood star.
That's a reflection of the movie itself, which is about a producer (Robert De Niro) whose career is on the skids because his most recent project (with Sean Penn) gets terrible reviews from preview audiences and his next one (with Bruce Willis) is threatened when the star refuses to shave off his unsightly beard.
This satire about the idiocy of the studio moviemaking system has some clever moments, as well as a solid turn from De Niro.
But it could have-and should have-been a lot sharper and edgier.
It seems that Levinson lost his nerve.