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I love a good postmodern take on a villain’s back-story – Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (the novel and, sort of, the musical) or John Gardner’s Grendel or even Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (which gives us a topsy turvy, super-identifiable Joker in Heath Ledger’s gonzo performance). I even like Tom Stoppard’s exercise in twee Shakespearean intrigue Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.
I had such high hopes for Disney’s similar take on Sleeping Beauty‘s nefarious baddie. Sleeping Beauty is one of my least favorite Disney animated classics, so I figured they could really go for broke and do something interesting. Angelina Jolie is perfect casting, and I believed the sky to be the limit. When I heard Lana Del Rey’s spooky, woozy take on the iconic “Once Upon a Dream” back in January, I thought, “Oh, yeah, they’ve nailed this.”
Alas, no.
If the film could have simply been Angelina slinking around to that hypnotic musical interpretation for two hours, I might have enjoyed myself.
Don’t get me wrong, Jolie is spot on as the titular anti-hero. (This does seem to be the summer of the anti-hero from Godzilla to Neighbors to Michael Fassbender’s dreamy Magneto.) Jolie is a delight in her otherwise disappointingly sketchy scenes, wringing an intoxicating cocktail of wit and despondency from a dearth of dialogue. Honestly, if she speaks 200 words in this film, I would be surprised.
I wish the rest of the film lived up to her wry potential. She owns the fact that she is spectacularly featured in a big summer blockbuster cartoon, but unfortunately no one else matches her (save Del Rey’s musical contribution).
Directed in ham-handed fashion by Robert Stromberg who was scenic designer on Disney’s other atrocious fairy tale reinventions Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and Sam Raimi’s Oz the Great and Powerful, Maleficent is clearly a Disney cash-grab forged from those films’ over-stuffed visual cast-offs. There are floating mountains and Wii-video game worthy creatures aplenty, but not much heart.
Jolie puts in a yeoman’s effort salvaging a film with no discernible script and a supporting cast that is be-wigged and be-dialected mercilessly. Seriously, Sharlto Copley’s King Stefan sounds like he took a left turn off the set of an Austin Powers flick, and the less said about the waxy-faced fairies Knotgrass (Imelda Staunton), Thistlewit (Juno Temple), Flittle (Leslie Manville) the better. (Ladies, I urge you … fire your agents … now.)
Jolie conveys such beautiful heartache as a true force of nature. Her Maleficent is violated over and over by a world consumed in its material goods, power plays, and social status. With simply her limpid eyes (and her fabulous cheekbones, lightly accentuated by some Gaga-esque prosthetics), she conveys a hurt that is deep and compelling as Maleficent finds her core essence destroyed by those she loves deepest.
Why the rest of the film couldn’t meet this performance is a crime I will never understand. I fear Maleficent’s greatest betrayal came at the hands of Disney’s relentless (soulless?) marketing department. Sigh.
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Reel Roy Reviews is now a book! Thanks to BroadwayWorld for this coverage – click here to view. In addition to online ordering at Amazon or from the publisher Open Books, the book currently is being carried by Bookbound, Common Language Bookstore, and Crazy Wisdom Bookstore and Tea Room in Ann Arbor, Michigan and by Green Brain Comics in Dearborn, Michigan. My mom Susie Duncan Sexton’s Secrets of an Old Typewriter series is also available on Amazon and at Bookbound and Common Language.
Reel Roy Reviews 
SO PROKFIEV’S SONG REFLECTS THE EVIL DAMAGE THAT MODERN DISNEY STUDIOS and present-day “marketers” CAN DO TO POTENTIALLY MEANINGFUL FILMS? I once sang that solo around town once upon a dream when my solos were in demand in a different town than this one is now? 😉 GUESS WHO SUGGESTED THE TUNE? YOUR GRANDMA…ONCE UPON A TIME/DREAM! SHE LOVED IT…now’ i’ll whisper…I know my place! shhhhh! 🙂 back to reclusiveness. 😥 (did I identify the correct classical composer?)
amen! I bet you sang it beautifully. I do love the song, and jolie was great fun, but the disney machine has cranked out another plastic turd. I wish they’d learn from when they do something great like million dollar arm. ah well.
whoops PROKOFIEV? spelled incorrectly? very incorrectly…it was Tchaikovsky.
oh, that makes sense – I wasn’t sure myself. prokofiev is peter and the wolf?
romeo & juliet by mr. P…have to check on peter & the wolf though! @roy!
Oh yeah!
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That’s too bad but I suspected as much. My brother works for Disney so I’m going to at least root for them (is that the right root).
seems right to me me! root, root for the home team! you can tell your brother, though, that million dollar arm is fabulous. disney hit a homerun with that one, to continue my goofy baseball references!
Glad to know that I won’t be spending my money on this movie. I love Jolie however the rest don’t sound so promising. Hang in there Roy sooner or later we both will like the same movie maybe. LOL Give your Mom my love and tell both your parents hi for me.
it’s too bad, kat – jolie is worth seeing, but as a whole, the enterprise is pretty dull and flat. felt like a tv movie in tone and quality
disappointment. i’m a huge fairy tale fan, and enjoy the characters, both good and bad. too bad about this one, she looks stunning, but guess that’s where it ends. she said her kids were terrified of her in the makeup, all except for the one little one who is in the film with her, she thought nothing of it. )
you probably should still check it out, beth, but only as a matinee. it’s worth watching for her alone, but overall a disappointing disney effort. so much potential wasted.
Such a intriguing premise – Sadly potential yet to be fulfilled.
It is irritating to take a story and not do it justice – rather like building tacky uninspired houses along prime water front real estate …clutter up the space with stuff that will prevent better development in the near future.
perfect analogy! jolie is such fun amidst such dismal surroundings – it’s really a shame
Blast it all. I was hoping this would be utterly fab – I mean, they hired ANGELINA JOLIE! However, I’ve yet to find one positive review.
I hate it when big-budget Hollywood drops the ball like this.
amen! it’s still worth seeing just for her, but she deserved SUCH a better film. sad.
On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 9:54 PM, Reel Roy Reviews wrote:
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It sounds like quite an empty experience. As if they spent all that time writing Jolie’s character and forgetting to work on the rest. Great review Roy
Exactly so, Mike, which is a shame as the cast and premise had such potential
And thank you for the kind remarks! 🙂
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Good review Roy. It looks nice, but that’s all. The story is barely there and the performance from Jolie is fine, but you can tell that even she wants more to do.
Exactly right! Waste of time and talent, unfortunately
I absolutely loved the film. It’s a fantasy… something we all need once in a while.
Glad you enjoyed it, Tyler! There was a lot of fun to be had
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Very good review dude. She always seems to be the best thing in a movie.
Sooner or later (studios/producers) will get the point: the writer is not besides the point. The writer is the point. You can’t direct or act, what’s not there.
Too bad, this could have been really good. I’ll probably rent it one day, when I’m out of options…
Strong review.
beautifully put – the writer is so important and it seems to be such an afterthought any more. jolie is worth seeing, but overall the film was disappointing. thanks for commenting!!
You got it! Interesting review….
thanks for the kind words!
On Sun, Jun 29, 2014 at 5:19 PM, Reel Roy Reviews wrote:
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🙂
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