Released: 30th January
Seen: 15th February
The world of opera is one that this reviewer is not exactly well versed in, to put it mildly. The number of operas that I’ve seen could be counted on one hand and it’s literally only the Jerry Springer Opera so it’s not like that counts for anything. This is to say that I, and possibly most non-Opera fans, have no idea who Maria Callas is or what about her would make her such an important figure to be worthy of a biopic. Sure you can take a look at her Wikipedia and see her referred to as “The Bible of Opera” but without knowing her it means you effectively have to go in blind and learn about her as the film progresses… on some levels, Maria is a fascinating way to get to know this performer and makes you want to know even more. On other levels, it makes it hard to get to know this woman.
Maria takes place over the final week in the life of Maria Callas (Angelina Jolie). After a long life as a legend of the Opera, Maria spends her days in her apartment in Paris in somewhat declining health which she tries to deal with by taking medications. The medications come with a slight side effect of hallucinations which has made Maria hallucinate a film crew who interview her about her life. Between moments of exploring her long and difficult past (a past that includes lost loves, a cruel mother and the literal Nazis) Maria is also trying to figure out if she can still sing the way that she did years before, something that she feels she needs to be able to do in order to continue being the grand diva she’s always been.
Maria comes from the same writer and director team that brought us the recent film Spencer and it’s pretty clear that the two of them have hit on a formula that works pretty well. Take a well-known woman, isolate a single week of her life, throw in a couple of hallucinations along the way to give us excuses to look into a long backstory without just telling a linear narrative over decades of time and make it all crescendo to a moment of the lead character having a brief moment of freedom before their well known tragic death. It’s a formula that really seems to fit what these two have done together but it’s a formula that clearly works well because Maria seems to match Spencer in terms of just being a generally good film but with a few major flaws and one truly spectacular lead performance.
It does certainly help that Maria takes a moment to make it very clear what’s so special about Maria Callas for those of us unfamiliar with her work by simply letting the power of her voice fill every spare second of film that they can put it in. If you aren’t convinced within 15 minutes that this woman was one of the best vocalists of all time then there is not much that can be done for you because the film insists you understand and believe that Maria Callas is the greatest singer ever. Her voice is powerful and is the driving force of the film, largely because most of the film revolves around this idea of “What is an artist when they can no longer make the art that they used to make?” so it needs to make sure you know the talent that is slowly being lost in order for the tension to work.
Now, to go off on a tangent for a moment here, Maria is mostly being reviewed because it has a single Oscar nomination this year for its cinematography so let’s address that… it’s fine. The film looks about as good as you could imagine, varying between assorted styles to match certain eras and using the sets and landscape brilliantly. Shots set in Paris are just gorgeous like they’re right out of a postcard, any time the film alternates between eras we get to jump from colour to black and white and even change aspect ratios, all little things that help visually set the tone and it’s all quite lovely. I have no problems with this nomination but does anyone want to explain to me why Angelina Jolie isn’t currently nominated for an Oscar?
Much like Spencer had Kristen Stewart pulling out a career-best performance to carry that film through its biggest problems, Maria has Angelina Jolie delivering an absolutely captivating performance. It’s certainly a subdued performance, she glides around the frame quietly and confidently but it’s impossible to look away from her. When she opens her mouth to let Maria Callas’ voice come out, you feel like it’s coming right from Angelina’s vocal cords (at least, this non-opera fan believed it. Real opera fans might argue but that’s another discussion) and the moments where they let Angelina sing to show where Maria’s performance skills had dropped are powerful and show what a great actress Angelina is. The fact she wasn’t even on the list for potential Oscar winners this year is staggering, the film lives and dies on her performance alone and she manages to make it work.
…ok, MOSTLY work. Mostly this film is a fascinating look into the life of a legendary woman but it has the exact same problem that Spencer had, namely the weird choice to have hallucinations of major characters follow the lead around so we can get some exposition going is a bad idea that should not have been allowed beyond the writing stage. This set of hallucinations might even be worse because they’re literally just a camera crew named after the medication Maria was taking, serving no purpose other than to have an excuse to get Maria talking about her childhood trauma so we can segue into scenes set in that era. It makes it feel like the film comes to a standstill, breaking any momentum for no good reason.
If there’s one thing that a film like Maria doesn’t need it’s to have its momentum break because it’s not like it has a lot of momentum to begin with. This isn’t some fast-paced drama where a million things are happening and we have to keep up, it’s a slow ponderous film that wants you to live in the last week of this woman’s life and that’s an absolutely fine choice to make as long as you don’t break that slow pace up and make it even slower. At some point, you will lose people and it’s unfair to expect Angelina’s raw talent to pull everyone back in.
Look, Maria is a fine enough film that looks fantastic and has a lead performance that you would think was scientifically designed to get Awards. Its problems are just down to the specific quirks that the duo who are leading the creative charge seem to put into the films that they make together. It’s not the worst musical biopic ever, I dare say it’s one of the more OK ones just because it doesn’t fall into the typical mould that has made that entire subgenre so hard to get into, but if you aren’t into the lead performance or the shot composition going on then there’s not much here for you to grab onto. It’s fine enough but nothing to sing an aria about.
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