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Angelina Jolie springs back to life from a career slumber in Maleficent Angelina Jolie springs back to life from a career slumber in Maleficent
(about 7 hours later)
Whether it's Wicked or The Wolverine or Butch and Sundance: The Early Days, origin stories tend to resemble unsightly extra limbs grafted on to bodies that were getting along fine without them. No child has ever asked: "But what exactly were the psychological factors contributing to Cruella de Vil's sadism?"Whether it's Wicked or The Wolverine or Butch and Sundance: The Early Days, origin stories tend to resemble unsightly extra limbs grafted on to bodies that were getting along fine without them. No child has ever asked: "But what exactly were the psychological factors contributing to Cruella de Vil's sadism?"
Disney's Maleficent, a live-action fantasy that fills in the gaps around 1959's Sleeping Beauty, is an exception. It adds layers of nourishing detail to the title character, a supposedly evil fairy who generally seemed lacking in motivation. I know she didn't get invited to the christening of Princess Aurora, but throwing a curse on the host's daughter always seemed a trifle disproportionate. Couldn't she simply have slashed the king's tyres or started a poison-pen campaign like any normal person? Thanks to the movie, we now know the real reason she wasn't on the guest list: she and the king had history. Their relationship ended badly – to say the least – when he cut off her wings. As a relationship faux pas, that's up there with sleeping with her best friend or keeping his Facebook status set to "single".Disney's Maleficent, a live-action fantasy that fills in the gaps around 1959's Sleeping Beauty, is an exception. It adds layers of nourishing detail to the title character, a supposedly evil fairy who generally seemed lacking in motivation. I know she didn't get invited to the christening of Princess Aurora, but throwing a curse on the host's daughter always seemed a trifle disproportionate. Couldn't she simply have slashed the king's tyres or started a poison-pen campaign like any normal person? Thanks to the movie, we now know the real reason she wasn't on the guest list: she and the king had history. Their relationship ended badly – to say the least – when he cut off her wings. As a relationship faux pas, that's up there with sleeping with her best friend or keeping his Facebook status set to "single".
The film has no greater asset than Angelina Jolie, who brings contradictory qualities to the part of Maleficent. She is camp but not insincere. She has a steely disposition that can bend lithely into playful humour. She wrings every line for succulent effect, but resists the overwrought. And though she has never been shy about using her eyes the way other people use full-beam headlights along dark country lanes, makeup has now rendered her positively otherworldly. With silicone-filled prosthetics added to her face, her cheekbones resemble banisters. The combination of ostentatiously curved horns, a withering scowl and a leather catsuit have turned her into a cross between Tim Curry in Legend, Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest and Diana Rigg in The Avengers.The film has no greater asset than Angelina Jolie, who brings contradictory qualities to the part of Maleficent. She is camp but not insincere. She has a steely disposition that can bend lithely into playful humour. She wrings every line for succulent effect, but resists the overwrought. And though she has never been shy about using her eyes the way other people use full-beam headlights along dark country lanes, makeup has now rendered her positively otherworldly. With silicone-filled prosthetics added to her face, her cheekbones resemble banisters. The combination of ostentatiously curved horns, a withering scowl and a leather catsuit have turned her into a cross between Tim Curry in Legend, Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest and Diana Rigg in The Avengers.
Most of all, she is back to being Angelina Jolie again. She gives such a deliciously driven performance that there should be no embarrassment in labelling it a comeback – or a reawakening after a deep and stubborn sleep. The film features her most dynamic work since her Oscar-winning, star-making turn in Girl, Interrupted. As the psychiatric patient Lisa Rowe in that 1999 movie, she behaved as though she were the first person to invent cockiness, confrontational eye contact or even vulnerability itself. But this was not to be a happy ever after. At least not immediately.Most of all, she is back to being Angelina Jolie again. She gives such a deliciously driven performance that there should be no embarrassment in labelling it a comeback – or a reawakening after a deep and stubborn sleep. The film features her most dynamic work since her Oscar-winning, star-making turn in Girl, Interrupted. As the psychiatric patient Lisa Rowe in that 1999 movie, she behaved as though she were the first person to invent cockiness, confrontational eye contact or even vulnerability itself. But this was not to be a happy ever after. At least not immediately.
The curse of international fame sent Jolie into her own anaesthetising sleep, clutching her Academy Award like a favourite teddy. Gone in 60 Seconds, Lara Croft Tomb Raider, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow: it was as though she had enrolled in a class run by Cuba Gooding Jr entitled "How to Squander Your Oscar".The curse of international fame sent Jolie into her own anaesthetising sleep, clutching her Academy Award like a favourite teddy. Gone in 60 Seconds, Lara Croft Tomb Raider, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow: it was as though she had enrolled in a class run by Cuba Gooding Jr entitled "How to Squander Your Oscar".
It wasn't her popularity that waned, only her quality control. Mr & Mrs Smith – on the set of which she met her fiancé Brad Pitt and spawned the phenomenon known as Brangelina – was a hit, as were other violent action vehicles such as Wanted and Salt (a Tom Cruise project retooled for Jolie). But when box-office success can greet a travesty like The Tourist, which has taken years to exhaust its usefulness as an all-purpose punchline to any Hollywood joke, something is wrong. At least when Nicole Kidman makes a film as wretched as Grace of Monaco, she has a good 10 or 15 stunning performances behind her that can serve as an inbuilt rebuttal. Jolie possesses no such safety net. Almost before it had begun, hers was a case of potential, interrupted.It wasn't her popularity that waned, only her quality control. Mr & Mrs Smith – on the set of which she met her fiancé Brad Pitt and spawned the phenomenon known as Brangelina – was a hit, as were other violent action vehicles such as Wanted and Salt (a Tom Cruise project retooled for Jolie). But when box-office success can greet a travesty like The Tourist, which has taken years to exhaust its usefulness as an all-purpose punchline to any Hollywood joke, something is wrong. At least when Nicole Kidman makes a film as wretched as Grace of Monaco, she has a good 10 or 15 stunning performances behind her that can serve as an inbuilt rebuttal. Jolie possesses no such safety net. Almost before it had begun, hers was a case of potential, interrupted.
Now and then, she would stir from her dozing to be briefly marvellous. She was authentically racked as the widow of the murdered journalist Daniel Pearl in A Mighty Heart, and she wore an array of splendid lipsticks and cloche hats as a bereft mother in Clint Eastwood's Changeling. But there was a sense that the world had lost Jolie to her own celebrity. Perhaps the pressure of the Brangelina sensation was too daunting to allow her to choose her parts sanely. And it would be perfectly understandable if her children or her charity work (she is a UN Special Envoy) consumed her time. Whatever the reason, her film career had become a triumph of theory over practice.Now and then, she would stir from her dozing to be briefly marvellous. She was authentically racked as the widow of the murdered journalist Daniel Pearl in A Mighty Heart, and she wore an array of splendid lipsticks and cloche hats as a bereft mother in Clint Eastwood's Changeling. But there was a sense that the world had lost Jolie to her own celebrity. Perhaps the pressure of the Brangelina sensation was too daunting to allow her to choose her parts sanely. And it would be perfectly understandable if her children or her charity work (she is a UN Special Envoy) consumed her time. Whatever the reason, her film career had become a triumph of theory over practice.
Maleficent is the kiss that disturbs her from that state. It is a textbook example of how to engineer a comeback. It's hardly uncommon in such circumstances for a star's off-screen persona to enhance the character, and vice versa – the classic case being the troublesome, abrasive Bette Davis playing Margo Channing, a character who shared precisely those qualities, in All About Eve. The crossover between actor and character gives the audience the impression that we are sneaking a peak into the performer's psyche, while the autobiographical element deepens the fiction in turn. The word "baggage" is commonly used pejoratively. In acting, however, it can be magically beneficial. Casting Angelina Jolie as a woman who overcomes her natural antipathy to children is an in-joke we can all smile at: she and Pitt have six. Maleficent is the kiss that disturbs her from that state. It is a textbook example of how to engineer a comeback. It's hardly uncommon in such circumstances for a star's off-screen persona to enhance the character, and vice versa – the classic case being the troublesome, abrasive Bette Davis playing Margo Channing, a character who shared precisely those qualities, in All About Eve. The crossover between actor and character gives the audience the impression that we are sneaking a peek into the performer's psyche, while the autobiographical element deepens the fiction in turn. The word "baggage" is commonly used pejoratively. In acting, however, it can be magically beneficial. Casting Angelina Jolie as a woman who overcomes her natural antipathy to children is an in-joke we can all smile at: she and Pitt have six.
Comebacks in recent years have tended to hinge on some manner of recovery or redemption, none more so than that of Robert Downey Jr, whose off-screen trajectory is best described as rise-and-fall-and-rise-higher-than-ever. Cocksure was always his default setting, even before the court appearances and prison spells started to overshadow the movies. Now it feels like each success he enjoys, each wry and conspiratorial aside to the audience, is informed by our mutual knowledge of what he has been through, and what he almost lost.Comebacks in recent years have tended to hinge on some manner of recovery or redemption, none more so than that of Robert Downey Jr, whose off-screen trajectory is best described as rise-and-fall-and-rise-higher-than-ever. Cocksure was always his default setting, even before the court appearances and prison spells started to overshadow the movies. Now it feels like each success he enjoys, each wry and conspiratorial aside to the audience, is informed by our mutual knowledge of what he has been through, and what he almost lost.
A figure such as Mickey Rourke is more complicated. Despite having negotiated the comeback trail with aplomb, when he took the masochistic lead in The Wrestler, there has never quite been the same Downey-esque reassurance that he is out of the woods. What stops us from enjoying Rourke's return too much is the spectre of recidivism. Downey is surely in too-elevated a position to make the same swan-dive from grace that he did before. Even once the awards started piling up for The Wrestler, Rourke never quite seemed to shed his self-destructive edge.A figure such as Mickey Rourke is more complicated. Despite having negotiated the comeback trail with aplomb, when he took the masochistic lead in The Wrestler, there has never quite been the same Downey-esque reassurance that he is out of the woods. What stops us from enjoying Rourke's return too much is the spectre of recidivism. Downey is surely in too-elevated a position to make the same swan-dive from grace that he did before. Even once the awards started piling up for The Wrestler, Rourke never quite seemed to shed his self-destructive edge.
Unlike those actors, Jolie never fell foul of the law. She didn't even butt heads with the studio brass like Bette Davis. All she could be accused of doing is choosing projects unbecoming of her talent. That's why Maleficent feels so victorious: it's a harmonious fusion of both what Hollywood wants from her, and the talents that have been underexploited until now. Of course, all this talk of a comeback will be rendered moot if Jolie decides she doesn't want anything of the sort. She has been busy with her film-making career, first directing In the Land of Blood and Honey, set during the Bosnian war, and now the forthcoming second world war adventure Unbroken, scripted by the Coen brothers and starring Jack O'Connell. "Acting is going to take more of a back seat," she said recently. "I'm sure there'll be a few more films, but I'm happy that I'm able to be selective and have fun with characters like Maleficent. But I would like to focus more on writing and directing and, above all, I would like to focus more on my work with the UN."On the basis of Maleficent, it would be a loss to cinema if she chose to stay behind the camera entirely. When she peers through the window at the infant Aurora, and tries to nip her own maternal affection in the bud by insulting and hissing at the child ("I hate you," she says coolly), she is freer and funnier than she has ever been on screen. Her most devastating moment, though, is surely the amputation of her wings, and not only because Jolie plays it so passionately, howling and clenching every tendon in despair. No one who has undergone a double mastectomy, as Jolie did last year, could overlook the symbolism of such a scene, intentional or otherwise. It's the sort of spectacle that feels both too raw for disposable entertainment to contain, and too important for it not to.Unlike those actors, Jolie never fell foul of the law. She didn't even butt heads with the studio brass like Bette Davis. All she could be accused of doing is choosing projects unbecoming of her talent. That's why Maleficent feels so victorious: it's a harmonious fusion of both what Hollywood wants from her, and the talents that have been underexploited until now. Of course, all this talk of a comeback will be rendered moot if Jolie decides she doesn't want anything of the sort. She has been busy with her film-making career, first directing In the Land of Blood and Honey, set during the Bosnian war, and now the forthcoming second world war adventure Unbroken, scripted by the Coen brothers and starring Jack O'Connell. "Acting is going to take more of a back seat," she said recently. "I'm sure there'll be a few more films, but I'm happy that I'm able to be selective and have fun with characters like Maleficent. But I would like to focus more on writing and directing and, above all, I would like to focus more on my work with the UN."On the basis of Maleficent, it would be a loss to cinema if she chose to stay behind the camera entirely. When she peers through the window at the infant Aurora, and tries to nip her own maternal affection in the bud by insulting and hissing at the child ("I hate you," she says coolly), she is freer and funnier than she has ever been on screen. Her most devastating moment, though, is surely the amputation of her wings, and not only because Jolie plays it so passionately, howling and clenching every tendon in despair. No one who has undergone a double mastectomy, as Jolie did last year, could overlook the symbolism of such a scene, intentional or otherwise. It's the sort of spectacle that feels both too raw for disposable entertainment to contain, and too important for it not to.