So enormously watchable is Angelina Jolie in Disney’s “Maleficent” that one is awfully tempted to pardon the film for its myriad storytelling hiccups based solely on her lead performance. As the iconic villainess who in the classic 1959 animation cursed Sleeping Beauty into an endless slumber, Jolie is magnificent: lavishly wicked, devilishly elegant and with a fiery glare that could turn any man to pure stone, her performance is dead-on, so much so that one suspects she might have actually been born to play the role -- watching her glower and prowl about in her extravagant costume is like watching Maleficent herself step out from her animation cels into our reality. Jolie also reminds us why she became such a superstar in the first place: though she’s often dismissed as nothing but a tabloid beauty, people forget that she truly is a terrifically talented actress with real screen presence, and that taking your eyes off her is a tough ask -- especially when she has thick, twisting horns growing from her crown and pointed cheekbones that could sharpen an HB pencil.
So it’s a damn shame that the rest of Disney’s live-action fairy tale reimagining, which shines its titular Mistress of All Evil in a new and more sympathetic light, does her performance little justice. Somewhere in here there’s a dark and intimate character study ready to burst out and spread its wings; sadly, its wings are clipped by rushed storytelling which races through Maleficent’s untold tale, skipping over character beats in favour of pretty CG visuals. Her transformation from angelic innocent to vengeful villain to loving mother is rendered rather limp and could have benefited from a longer, more fleshed out runtime (at 97 minutes it’s one of the shortest blockbusters of recent years). We can put this down to the inexperience of first-time director Robert Stromberg: previously a production designer on “Avatar” and “Alice in Wonderland,” Stromberg crams the screen full of colourful fantasy landscapes and magical creatures, and somewhere along the line, Maleficent’s story gets lost in the spectacle -- that the bogstandard fairy tale setting feels largely artificial doesn’t do well to help matters either.
The film does have an admirable revisionist feminist streak akin to last year’s “Frozen,” with a rape-revenge plot tied in with Maleficent’s tragic backstory (an early moment of surprising bleakness the film never quite recaptures) and the “true love’s kiss” cliche given a neat spin. Along with that, it’s easy to see what it was about the project that appealed so much to Jolie: as Maleficent grows close to the growing Aurora, aka Sleeping Beauty (the talented Elle Fanning, sadly given nothing to do), the film delves into themes of adoptive parenting and maternal love, which the three-time adopter ought to know a little something about. But the execution lacks true enchantment and for a film called “Maleficent,” it disappointingly only scratches the surface of its anti-heroine’s intriguing psyche. Jolie is a joy to watch, her performance a darkly exquisite, ferocious treat; trouble is, whenever she prowls off-screen, you find yourself willing her to prowl straight back.
Rating: 5/10
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