Maria

Director: Pablo Larraín

Writer: Steven Knight

Maria is set in the final week of the life of legendary opera singer Maria Callas (Angelina Jolie). The story is set around Callas trying to come to terms with a body and, most crushingly, voice that is failing her. Trying to build her voice, so she can sing again, she does so while reflecting on her life, her childhood relationship with her mother and her relationship with Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer). All while coming to terms with her fading fame.

Maria is a melancholic, humourous, often tragic, but beautifully told story. It is helped by being set against the equally melancholic, beauty and power of opera.

It’s at its best when we focus on Callas and her struggles to come to terms with her fallibility. Told partly in flash back and more interestingly by her conversations with a film maker Mandrax (Kodi Smit-McPhee), a construct of Callas’s imagination. The strongest parts are here and in the relationship she has with her loyal staff, Farruccio (Pierfrancesco Favino) and Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher). Relationships that portray love, loyalty and anguish as those closest to her see all her frailty.

It revolves around Angelina Jolie’s excellent performance. Carrying off the balance between the elegant diva and broken and vulnerable older Callas perfectly.

The film looks great presenting the different eras in styles evocative of the filmmaking of that time. And of course it sounds great, blending Jolie’s vocals with the power of Callas’s real voice.

It only really falters when time is spent on her relationship with Onassis, which while important feels an unnecessary diversion, from the film’s strengths.

Maria is a beautifully told, melancholy and tragic telling of Maria Callas’s final days. It revolves around a perfectly judged performance from Angelina Jolie, carrying glamour and tragedy in equal measure. It’s operatic moments add wonderfully to the feel of the film. It’s not perfect, but it is a beautifully told often tragic tale.