Others may regard them in a less complicated way, but I wonder whether Angelina Jolie ever has mixed feelings
about her lips.
They hog the limelight just by being there, daring moviegoers more into tomb-raiding than
"A Mighty Heart" not to take her acting talent seriously.
In various, slightly parted poses of defiance or nine kinds of sultriness, the Jolie kisser has been deployed
by studio marketing departments every which way.
And with Jolie done up like a melancholy Edward Hopper figure,
her eyes downcast, her lips are the visual focal point of the ad campaign for the new Clint Eastwood film,
"Changeling," which is a little odd, considering the wrenching subject matter.
The film, based on Southern California's infamous Wineville chicken coop murders of the late 1920s, is a good, solid addition to the 78-year-old Eastwood's directorial career. From a forlorn young boy's doom-tinged farewell to his mother near the beginning, to the precise moment (on the "Silent Night" lyric "mother and child") a heinous predator dies on the scaffold near the end, Eastwood, working from a script by J. Michael Straczynski, tells a painful true story neatly and well, with one foot in rousing Hollywood melodrama and the other in a story that resists tidy resolution.
In 1928, Walter Collins, 9, disappeared from the Los Angeles-area home he shared with his mother, Christine. Five months later, another boy claiming to be the son of Christine Collins was reunited with his doubting mother in a highly public way by the Los Angeles Police Department. Collins said bunk: The boy is someone else's.
The police, ruled with murderous impunity by Chief James E. "Two Guns" Davis, were not interested in any more bad publicity and summarily tossed Collins in the psychiatric ward of the county hospital under a Code 12 violation. Feminine hysteria was the crime, in so many words. Only the newfound boy's admission of guilt freed her (it plays out somewhat differently in the film). The facts are cloudy, but Walter Collins' abductor appears to have been Gordon Northcott, whose Riverside County ranch held the remains of various missing persons.
It's grim stuff, and "Changeling" elides the worst of it, perhaps to give the audience a break (what's left out of the script relates to sexual molestation, as well as the involvement of Northcott's mother), perhaps to avoid comparisons with Eastwood's "Mystic River." The script emphasizes the triumph of one woman's campaign against the law-enforcement officials who shut her away in hopes of shutting her up. Jolie, rail-thin, plays Collins as a feral crusader for justice. In a largely expository role, John Malkovich portrays the Rev. Gustav Briegleb, Collins' partner in exposing the venality of the local police.
Jolie brings out the best in the script and transcends its limitations. She's spectacularly effective in the most intense blowouts -- there's an Oscar-clip dilly with Jolie and Jason Butler Harner, who plays Northcott -- but Jolie really shines in the calm before the storm, the scenes (and there are many) when one patronizing male authority figure after another belittles her at their peril.
"Changeling" comes to dramatic life most vividly in the hushed scenes, notably the ones dominated by Michael Kelly's Detective Lester Ybarra. He's one of the few characters who undergo a marked change, starting out as just another LAPD flatfoot, slowly pulled into the vortex of evil represented by Northcott. Kelly's long interrogation scene with a runaway (Eddie Alderson) who has survived his waking nightmare is a high point of dramatic purpose. You almost wish Eastwood hadn't felt the need to intercut it with Gothic horror flashbacks.
I found "Changeling" consistently involving, though a touch deliberate (it runs 141 minutes) and psychologically thin. Where it lands on your Eastwood list depends on how highly you regard him as a craftsman. For my money, Eastwood's most interesting recent work lies with "Letters From Iwo Jima," most of "Unforgiven" and "The Bridges of Madison County" and parts of "A Perfect World." If you're an ardent admirer of "Million Dollar Baby," we'll have to agree to disagree. In "Changeling," certain atmospheric details feel less than judicious, and unlike some of my colleagues, I don't pin the problems on the quality of the production design. Rather, it's cinematographer Tom Stern's unusually blunt and flat lighting (heavy on the cold, milky slashes of white cutting up dark interior spaces) and Eastwood's direction that feel a little heavy-handed. And Eastwood's musical score, more '40s-sounding than '20s or early '30s, hinges on a theme that shamelessly repurposes the first five notes of "I Wish You Love."
Does any of this matter to the average filmgoer who just wants to know whether this combination of serial-killer saga and triumph of the human spirit is any damn good? No, and yes. "Changeling" fundamentally works; it holds you. But these issues of texture and detail matter too, and they hold clues as to why Eastwood's latest is a good, solid achievement rather than a great, grieving one.
MPAA rating: R (for some violent and disturbing content and language).
Running time: 2:21.
Starring: Angelina Jolie (Christine Collins); John Malkovich (Rev. Gustav Briegleb); Jeffrey Donovan (Capt. J.J. Jones); Michael Kelly ( Detective Lester Ybarra); Jason Butler Harner (Gordon Northcott); Amy Ryan (Carol Dexter); Geoff Pierson (S.S. Hahn); Colm Feore (Chief Davis); Frank Wood (Ben Harris); Denis O'Hare (Dr. Steele).
Directed by Clint Eastwood; written by J. Michael Straczynski; photographed by Tom Stern; edited by Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach; music by Eastwood; production designed by James J. Murakami; produced by Eastwood, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Robert Lorenz. A Universal Pictures release.
Changeling Movie Trailer
About the Movie "Changeling"
Mrs. Collins told her story clearly, stating that from the first she was convinced the boy was not her missing son . . .
She was subjected to an exhaustive examination by President Schweitzer, who wound up asking her what happened shortly before she was taken to the County Hospital.
"I was requested to appear before Captain Jones," she said.
"In the presence of several others, he said: ‘What are you trying to do, make a lot of fools out of us all? Are you trying to shirk your duty as a mother and
have the State provide for your son? You are just a fool.’"
-— Los Angeles Times, October 17, 1928, reporting on Mrs. Christine Collins at Police Commission Hearings
Clint Eastwood directs Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich in a provocative thriller based on actual events:
Changeling. In the film, Christine Collins' (Jolie) prayers are met when her kidnapped son is returned.
But amidst the frenzy of the photo-op reunion, she realizes this child is not hers. Facing corrupt police
and a skeptical public, she desperately hunts for answers, only to be confronted by a truth that will
change her forever.
Changeling tells the story of one woman whose invincible spirit
and refusal to surrender brought down a corrupt police department and ushered in a new
era of dignity and equality under the law.
Los Angeles, March 1928: On a beautiful Saturday morning in a working-class
suburb, single mother Christine Collins (Oscar® winner Angelina Jolie) says goodbye to
her nine-year-old son, Walter, and leaves for her job as a telephone operator. But when
Christine returns to their modest home, she is confronted with every parent’s worst
nightmare: her son has vanished.
An exhaustive and fruitless search ensues, but Walter has disappeared without a
trace . . . until five months later, when a child—claiming to be her boy—is returned by
police who are eager to bask in the public-relations coup of reuniting mother and child.
Dazed by the swirl of cops, reporters, photographers and her own conflicted emotions,
Christine is persuaded to take the boy home. But in her heart, she knows he is not
Walter.
As she pushes authorities to keep looking for her real son, Christine learns that in
Prohibition-era L.A., women don’t challenge the system and live to tell their story.
Slandered as delusional and unfit, she finds an ally in community activist Reverend
Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich), who helps her fight the city to look for her missing
boy.
Facing corrupt police who question her sanity and a skeptical public hungry for a
fairy-tale ending, Christine desperately hunts for answers. As she searches, she becomes
an unlikely heroine for the poor and downtrodden who have been systematically abused
and swept aside by the police state that has gripped L.A. Now, one woman’s quest won’t
stop until she finds her son…unless those assigned to protect and serve silence her for
good.
Joining director/producer Eastwood for the drama as producers are Imagine
Entertainment’s Academy Award® winner BRIAN GRAZER (American Gangster,
Cinderella Man, A Beautiful Mind), Oscar® winner RON HOWARD (Frost/Nixon,
Cinderella Man), as well as Oscar® nominee ROBERT LORENZ (Letters from Iwo Jima,
Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River).
Joining Jolie and Malkovich is an accomplished cast that includes JEFFREY
DONOVAN (television’s Burn Notice) as Captain J.J. Jones, the head of LAPD’s
juvenile investigation unit assigned to find Walter; MICHAEL KELLY (Broken English)
as Detective Lester Ybarra, the officer who initially links Walter’s disappearance to
another crime spree; COLM FEORE (Chicago) as LAPD Police Chief James E. Davis,
the head of the corrupt department; JASON BUTLER HARNER (television’s John
Adams) as Gordon Northcott, a serial killer who may have the clues to Walter’s
disappearance; and AMY RYAN (Gone Baby Gone) as Carol Dexter, a fellow innocent
prisoner who aids Christine during her lockdown in a mental ward.
Leading the behind-the-scenes talent is a seasoned crew of Eastwood film
veterans, including director of photography TOM STERN (Million Dollar Baby, Flags of
Our Fathers), production designer JAMES J. MURAKAMI (Letters from Iwo Jima, Rails
& Ties), Oscar®-winning editor JOEL COX (Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby) and editor
GARY D. ROACH (Letters from Iwo Jima, Rails & Ties), costume designer DEBORAH
HOPPER (Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River) and visual effects supervisor MICHAEL
OWENS (Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima). The drama’s screenplay is by J.
MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI (upcoming They Marched Into Sunlight).
Changeling’s executive producers are TIM MOORE (Flags of Our Fathers,
Letters from Iwo Jima) and JIM WHITAKER (American Gangster, Cinderella Man).
About the Cast "Changeling"
ANGELINA JOLIE (Christine Collins)
Academy Award® and three-time Golden Globe winner ANGELINA JOLIE
(Christine Collins) continues to be one of Hollywood’s most talented leading actresses.
Jolie’s most recently released films were Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf and Michael
Winterbottom’s critically acclaimed A Mighty Heart, the dramatic true story of Mariane
and Daniel Pearl. Jolie’s performance in A Mighty Heart earned her nominations from
the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, Broadcast Film Critics and Film Independent’s
Spirit Awards.
Jolie was heard as the voice of Master Tigress in DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda,
opposite Jack Black, and was recently seen in the fantasy-thriller Wanted, for Timur
Bekmambetov. Upcoming films include the long-awaited adaptation of Ayn Rand’s
seminal novel “Atlas Shrugged.”
Jolie’s previous films include The Good Shepherd, directed by Robert De Niro
and co-starring Matt Damon; Mr. & Mrs. Smith, co-starring Brad Pitt; Alexander,
directed by Oliver Stone and co-starring Colin Farrell and Anthony Hopkins; and the
action-adventure Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, with Jude Law and Gwyneth
Paltrow. She lent her voice to the animated feature Shark Tale, directed by the creators
of Shrek, which also featured the voices of Will Smith, Robert De Niro and Jack Black.
Jolie also starred in the Warner Bros. thriller Taking Lives, with Ethan Hawke. In 2003,
she played the lead role in the action-adventure Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of
Life, the sequel to director Simon West’s 2001 box-office smash Lara Croft: Tomb
Raider, and portrayed a relief worker for the United Nations in the provocative drama
Beyond Borders.
In 2001, she starred in Original Sin, opposite Antonio Banderas for Gia
writer/director Michael Cristofer. The previous year, she was seen with co-stars Nicolas
Cage and Robert Duvall as car thieves committing their final heist in the smash hit Gone
in Sixty Seconds, for producer Jerry Bruckheimer. She was also in the romantic comedy
Life or Something Like It. Jolie’s portrayal of a mental patient in Girl, Interrupted
garnered her an Academy Award®, her third Golden Globe Award, a Broadcast Film
Critics Association Award, ShoWest’s Supporting Actress of the Year Award and a
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a
Supporting Role. The film, based on the true story by Susanna Kaysen, was directed by
James Mangold and co-starred Winona Ryder.
Prior to that, she played a rookie police officer opposite Denzel Washington’s
veteran detective in the thriller The Bone Collector, directed by Phillip Noyce. She also
co-starred in Mike Newell’s Pushing Tin with Billy Bob Thornton and John Cusack.
Playing by Heart earned her the National Board of Review’s award for Breakthrough
Performance–Female; this character-driven drama, directed by Willard Carroll, featured
an all-star ensemble cast, including Sean Connery, Gena Rowlands, Madeleine Stowe,
Ellen Burstyn, Gillian Anderson and Dennis Quaid.
The HBO film Gia earned Jolie critical praise as well as a Golden Globe Award, a
Screen Actors Guild Award and an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of supermodel
Gia Carangi, who died of AIDS. Jolie also received an Emmy nomination for her role
opposite Gary Sinise in director John Frankenheimer’s George Wallace, a period epic for
TNT about the controversial governor of Alabama. The film earned Jolie her first
Golden Globe Award and a CableACE nomination for her portrayal of George Wallace’s
second wife, Cornelia.
Jolie also co-starred with David Duchovny and Timothy Hutton in director Andy
Wilson’s Playing God. Prior to that, she starred in Hallmark Hall of Fame’s four-hour
miniseries presentation True Women; directed by Karen Arthur, it was based on Janice
Woods Windle’s best-selling historical novel. Jolie also starred in Annette Haywood-
Carter’s much-acclaimed Foxfire and Iain Softley’s Hackers.
A member of the famed MET Theatre Ensemble Workshop, Jolie trained at the
Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and has also studied with Jan Tarrant in New York and
Silvana Gallardo in Los Angeles.
Jolie has also received wide recognition for her humanitarian work. She was the
first recipient of the Citizen of the World Award from the United Nations Correspondents
Association, as well as the Global Humanitarian Action Award in 2005. In February
2007, Jolie was accepted by the bipartisan think tank Council on Foreign Relations for a
special five-year term designed to nurture the next generation of foreign-policy makers.
Jolie is also a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR). She helped push through the Unaccompanied Alien Child
Protection Act and founded the National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children, an
organization that provides free legal aid to asylum-seeking children.
JOHN MALKOVICH (Reverend Gustav Briegleb)
JOHN MALKOVICH (Reverend Gustav Briegleb) is one of the most
compelling presences in cinema, having with a 20-year body of work marked with
acclaimed performances in thought-provoking independents, as well as mainstream
movies. As a guiding member of Chicago’s landmark Steppenwolf Theatre Company,
Malkovich as a producer, director and actor has had a profound impact on the American
theater landscape. That same spirit of innovation found in Steppenwolf informs
Malkovich’s production company, Mr. Mudd, which is the creative force behind some of
the most intriguing films of the past 10 years, including Ghost World and Juno.
Malkovich remains of the one the busiest actors in Hollywood, with a diverse
line-up of projects that will soon make their way to theaters. First up is the Coen
brothers’ comedy Burn After Reading, in which Malkovich is part of a stellar ensemble
featuring Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Frances McDormand and Tilda Swinton. The film,
which makes its premiere at the 2008 Venice Film Festival, tells the story of what
happens when the private memoir of a CIA agent ends up in the hands of an unscrupulous
duo that attempts to sell it. The film premieres in the U.S. on September 12, 2008.
Malkovich also stars in Gilles Bourdos’ Afterwards, which follows a mysterious
doctor (Malkovich) who can sense when people are about to die. The film, a Mr. Mudd
production, debuts October 2008. Malkovich also recently starred opposite Tom Hanks
and his son Colin in Sean McGinly’s film The Great Buck Howard. The film follows an
illusionist (Malkovich) in decline who mentors a young man (Colin Hanks) with a
disapproving father (Tom Hanks). The film made its premiere at the 2008 Sundance
Film Festival. Malkovich will soon star in Disgrace, an independent that tells the story
of a Cape Town professor who, after having an affair with a student, gets caught up in a
mess of post-apartheid politics.
Most recently, Malkovich appeared in Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf, opposite
Angelina Jolie, and in Stefen Fangmeier’s Eragon, opposite Jeremy Irons. He also
starred in Raoul Ruiz’s Klimt. The film is a portrait of Austrian artist Gustav Klimt
(Malkovich), whose lavish paintings came to symbolize the art-nouveau style of the late
19th and early 20th centuries.
Having worked with many of world’s leading directors, Malkovich has made an
indelible impression in such films as: Liliana Cavani’s Ripley’s Game, Spike Jonze’s
Being John Malkovich, Jane Campion’s The Portrait of a Lady, Wolfgang Petersen’s In
the Line of Fire, Gary Sinise’s Of Mice and Men, Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Sheltering
Sky, Stephen Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons, Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun, Paul
Newman’s The Glass Menagerie, Roland Joffé’s The Killing Fields and Robert Benton’s
Places in the Heart. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award® for Best
Supporting Actor, for Places in the Heart (1985) and for In the Line of Fire (1994).
Malkovich’s performance in Places in the Heart also earned him a Best Supporting Actor
Award from the National Society of Film Critics and the National Board of Review. In
1999, he won a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor for Being
John Malkovich.
In 1998, Malkovich joined producing partners Lianne Halfon and Russ Smith to
create the production company Mr. Mudd, whose first film was the celebrated Ghost
World, directed by Terry Zwigoff. In 2003, Malkovich followed this up with his own
feature directorial debut, The Dancer Upstairs, starring Academy Award® winner Javier
Bardem. Other Mr. Mudd credits include The Libertine, starring Johnny Depp and
Samantha Morton, and Art School Confidential, also directed by Zwigoff and written by
screenwriter/cartoonist Dan Clowes. Last year, Mr. Mudd landed its biggest box-office
and critical success with Juno, starring Ellen Page, Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman.
The film, distributed through Fox Searchlight, received an Academy Award® for Best
Original Screenplay (Diablo Cody) and three nominations for Best Motion Picture, Best
Actress (Ellen Page) and Best Director (Jason Reitman).
Malkovich’s mark in television includes his Emmy Award winning performance
in the telefilm Death of a Salesman, directed by Volker Schlöndorff and co-starring
Dustin Hoffman. Other notable credits include the miniseries Napoléon and the
acclaimed HBO telefilm RKO 281, both garnering Malkovich Emmy Award
nominations.
Between 1976 and 1982, Malkovich acted in, directed or designed sets for more
than 50 Steppenwolf Theatre Company productions. Malkovich’s debut on the New
York stage in the Steppenwolf production of Sam Shepard’s True West earned him an
Obie Award. Other notable plays include Death of a Salesman, Slip of the Tongue, Sam
Shepard’s State of Shock and Lanford Wilson’s Burn This in New York, London and Los
Angeles. He has directed numerous plays at Steppenwolf, including the celebrated Balm
in Gilead in Chicago and off-Broadway, The Caretaker in Chicago and on Broadway and
Libra, which Malkovich adapted from Don DeLillo’s novel. His 2003 French stage
production of Hysteria was honored with five Molière Award nominations, including
Best Director. In addition to directing on The Dancer Upstairs, Malkovich has directed
three fashion shorts (Strap Hangings, Lady Behave, Hideous Man) for London designer
Bella Freud. Malkovich recently received a Molière Award as Best Director for his
production of Zach Helm’s Good Canary in Paris.
JEFFREY DONOVAN (Captain J.J. Jones)
JEFFREY DONOVAN (Captain J.J. Jones) stars as Michael Westen in the hit
USA Network original series Burn Notice, which returns for its second season this
summer.
Renowned for his versatility and striking presence, Donovan has made a name for
himself through memorable performances on both stage and screen. Last year, he was
seen on the big screen as a captivating leading man in the Joey Lauren Adams film Come
Early Morning. Written and directed by Adams, the film premiered at the 2006
Sundance Film Festival. Donovan received high praise for his performance as Cal, the
romantic lead opposite Ashley Judd. The Roadside Attractions film also stars Laura
Prepon.
Donovan also starred as Clay Driscoll in the independent film Believe in Me, an
adaptation of the young-adult novel “Brief Garland,” by Harold Keith. Directed by
Robert Collector, the film follows the story of Driscoll, a high-school girl’s basketball
coach in the 1960s who becomes inspired by his young team and who, in turn, inspires
them toward greatness. The film also stars Bruce Dern, Samantha Mathis and Heather
Matarazzo.
Donovan last appeared on the big screen in a memorable cameo in the blockbuster
romantic comedy Hitch, opposite Will Smith. Other film credits include Barry
Levinson’s Sleepers, Purpose, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 and Bait. Donovan made
his feature film debut in Throwing Down, which won the grand prize at the Hamptons
International Film Festival.
In 2004, Donovan earned critical acclaim for his starring role as Detective David
Creegan in the USA Network original series Touching Evil. His television credits include
HBO’s original film When Trumpets Fade; recurring roles on Crossing Jordan, Spin City,
The Beat and The Pretender; and notable guest appearances in Monk, CSI: Miami, Law &
Order and Homicide: Life on the Street.
COLM FEORE (Chief James E. Davis)
COLM FEORE (Chief James E. Davis) is a veteran talent with a distinguished
catalogue of work. Feore’s talent crosses many borders: an international success story,
he acts in both English and French and has conquered many mediums, with starring roles
in film, in television and on stage. Feore co-starred in the hit film Bon Cop, Bad Cop, the
highest-grossing Canadian film of all time.
Feore will be seen next in the upcoming season of FOX’s hit drama 24, as first
husband to the new president, and can currently be seen on the CBC miniseries Guns. On
the Canadian big screen, he will be seen next in a Kevin Tierney-produced project titled
Serveuses Demandées and in Le Pèige Américain, a feature film about Lucien Rivard,
who became a leader of the Canadian drug trade in the 1940s, which will be directed by
Charles Binamé.
Feore has a string of roles working with high-profile filmmakers including Julie
Taymor on Titus, Michael Mann on the Oscar®-nominated The Insider, John Woo on the
blockbuster Face/Off, Sidney Lumet on Night Falls on Manhattan, François Girard on
The Red Violin; and Michael Bay on Pearl Harbor, among others.
Feore’s other motion picture credits include an Academy Award® winner for Best
Picture, Chicago, which also won the 2003 SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by
the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture; The Chronicles of Riddick; The Exorcism of
Emily Rose; Paycheck; The Sum of All Fears; François Girard’s biopic, Thirty Two Short
Films About Glenn Gould, which won the Genie Award for Best Motion Picture and
earned him a nomination for his performance; City of Angels, opposite Meg Ryan; the
dark comedy Critical Care; Airborne; The Wrong Guy; Iron Eagle II; Bethune: The
Making of a Hero, starring Donald Sutherland; Beautiful Dreamers; and Truman.
Though he was born in the U.S. and spent the first years of his life in Ireland,
Feore and his family moved to Ottawa when he was three and Canada became his official
home. After studying acting at National Theatre School of Canada, Feore built a
distinguished Canadian stage career, performing in over 40 productions during 13
seasons with the prestigious Stratford Festival.
In 2000, he appeared in the New York Public Theater production of
Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In 2005, Feore starred with Denzel Washington and received
widespread critical acclaim for his portrayal of Cassius in the Broadway performance of
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. The power of his performance earned him the St. Clair
Bayfield Award, denoting the best performance by an actor in a Shakespearean play in
the New York metropolitan area.
His list of small-screen movie credentials is as long as it is varied, ranging from
historical roles in Nuremburg, Stephen King’s Storm of the Century, The Day Reagan
Was Shot, And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself, Empire and Trudeau—for which he
won the 2002 Monte Carlo Television Festival Award for Best Actor and the 2002
Gemini Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries—to classic dramas including Romeo and
Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew. Feore has also had many roles in such successful
contemporary shows as The West Wing, Boston Public and the Canadian miniseries
Slings & Arrows II, a look behind the scenes at the chaotic world of theater.
JASON BUTLER HARNER (Gordon Northcott)
JASON BUTLER HARNER (Gordon Northcott) is a relatively new face to film,
having been seen in Universal Pictures’ The Good Shepherd, which starred Angelina
Jolie and Matt Damon. He appeared most recently in the HBO miniseries John Adams,
opposite Paul Giamatti, and in the action film Next, opposite Nicolas Cage and Julianne
Moore. Upcoming projects include the independent film New Orleans, Mon Amour,
directed by Michael Almereyda and starring Christopher Eccleston, as well as Tony
Scott’s remake of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, which is based on Morton
Freedgood’s thriller novel and stars John Travolta and Denzel Washington.
Harner’s television credits include a number of guest-starring roles including
FOX’s much-anticipated J.J. Abrams pilot Fringe.
The bulk of Harner’s career has been on the stage where New York audiences
recognize him as a constant presence on and off-Broadway, most notably in the 2007
American premiere of Tom Stoppard’s nine-hour landmark trilogy The Coast of Utopia,
which set a record in receiving seven Tony Awards (the most Tony Awards ever received
by a play). Harner played Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev alongside such talents as Billy
Crudup, Martha Plimpton, Ethan Hawke and Amy Irving. Fortunate enough to have
worked extensively across the country on new material and classical, he has collaborated
with award-winning directors and acted intimately with Sally Field, Annette Bening,
Alfred Molina, James Cromwell and Amy Ryan, to name a few.
Other theater credits of interest include a controversial interpretation of Hedda
Gabler at the New York Theatre Workshop (for which he won an Obie Award); a highly
lauded production of The Glass Menagerie at The Kennedy Center; The Cherry Orchard
at the Mark Taper Forum; The Paris Letter at the Roundabout (for which he was
nominated for a Drama Desk Award); the title role in Hamlet at the Dallas Theater
Center; the American premiere of Tom Stoppard’s The Invention of Love; Macbeth at
The Public Theater, with Alec Baldwin and Angela Bassett; and Craig Wright’s
emotionally wrenching examination of infidelity, Orange Flower Water.
Born in a small town and raised in the suburbs, Harner has lived in New York
City for the past 14 years.
AMY RYAN (Carol Dexter)
Academy Award® nominee AMY RYAN (Carol Dexter) has made her mark by
working with some of today’s top directors and talent in the industry. Between many
high-profile stage projects and television roles such as in HBO’s The Wire, Ryan is still
just getting started.
Ryan hit the big screen in October 2007 in Miramax’s Gone Baby Gone, directed
by Ben Affleck. Ryan co-stars with Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris in a breakout
performance as a Boston mother whose child is kidnapped. The film has received rave
reviews, particularly for Ryan’s standout performance. Most notably, Ryan received
Academy Award®, Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations for her performance in
the Best Supporting Actress categories. Additionally, she won Best Supporting Actress
awards from the Broadcast Film Critics Association (Critics’ Choice Awards), New York
Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Board of Review and
the Boston Society of Film Critics, Washington, DC Area Film Critics Association and
San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards.
Ryan also appeared in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, starring Ethan
Hawke and directed by Sidney Lumet. Ryan was a part of Best Ensemble awards for this
film from the Gotham Awards, New York Film Critics Online and the Boston Society of
Film Critics, and she received a Best Supporting Actress award from the Los Angeles
Film Critics Association. The cast was also nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award from
the Broadcast Film Critics Association.
Following these two acclaimed performances, Ryan recently completed filming
Paul Greengrass’ upcoming untitled Green Zone thriller, opposite Matt Damon and Greg
Kinnear, as well as two independent films due out in 2008, Bob Funk, by writer/director
Craig Carlisle, and The Missing Person, by writer Noah Buschel.
Throughout her steady film career, Ryan worked with some of today’s top
directors, in a number of extremely noted films, such as Lodge Kerrigan in Keane;
Bennet Miller in Capote; and Steven Spielberg in War of the Worlds. She also appeared
in Dan in Real Life with Steve Carell, directed by Peter Hedges.
In addition to her film credits, Ryan has been quite a success on the Broadway
stage. In 2000, she was nominated for her first Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in
the Broadway hit Uncle Vanya. A few years later, she astounded critics with a moving
portrayal of the character Stella and was nominated again for Best Featured Actress,
opposite John C. Reilly, in A Streetcar Named Desire. She also starred in Neil LaBute’s
play The Distance From Here in London’s West End.
Ryan’s television credits are extensive, with over 30 guest-star performances and
more than eight series-regular or recurring parts on prime-time television shows.
MICHAEL KELLY (Detective Lester Ybarra)
With an expansive list of film and television credits spanning over 10 years,
MICHAEL KELLY (Detective Lester Ybarra) stars in the much-anticipated upcoming
HBO miniseries Generation Kill, premiering this July, which chronicles one U.S.
marine’s journey in the American-led assault on Baghdad in 2003. Kelly will also be
seen in the feature film The Narrows, directed by François Velle, later this year.
In 2006, Kelly starred in Invincible opposite Mark Wahlberg. Kelly’s other
feature film credits include the Universal Pictures blockbuster Dawn of the Dead,
directed by Zack Snyder; Tenderness, starring Russell Crowe; Broken English, written
and directed by Zoe Cassavetes and nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2007
Sundance Film Festival; and Loggerheads, nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the
2005 Sundance Film Festival. Kelly also appeared in M. Night Shyamalan’s
Unbreakable, Milos Forman’s Man on the Moon and River Red.
On television, Kelly most recently played the recurring role of FBI Agent Ron
Goddard on The Sopranos and was a series regular on the USA Network television series
Kojak, with Ving Rhames and Chazz Palminteri, and the UPN action drama Level 9. He
has also guest-starred on numerous hit television shows, including Law & Order: Special
Victims Unit, Law & Order, CSI: Miami, The Shield, Judging Amy, The Jury and Third
Watch.
A lifetime member of The Actors Studio, Kelly has performed in such plays as
Arthur Penn’s production of Major Crimes, Theatre Studio’s Miss Julie and a production
of In Search of Strindberg, staged in Stockholm, Sweden.
Angelina Jolie stars as Christine Collins in the provocative drama from director Clint Eastwood, Changeling. Based on the actual incident that rocked California's legal system, the film tells the shocking tale of a mother's quest to find her son, and those who won't stop until they silence her.
Changeling Movie Review. Film Critic Michael Phillips Reviews the Movie Changeling Changeling Starring Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan, Michael Kelly, Jason Butler Harner, Amy Ryan, Geoff Pierson, Colm Feore, Frank Wood, Denis O'Hare
Changeling Movie Review, Movie Trailer, Movie Production Notes, Synopsis, About the Movie, About the Cast
