Film Review

Maria (2024) — Angelina Jolie shines in Larraín’s biopic, but the script lacks depth

Maria Callas, the world’s greatest opera singer, spends the last days of her life in 1970s Paris, confronting her identity and life.

If you’ve seen Pablo Larraín’s Jackie (2016) and Spencer (2021), the previous entries in the Chilean filmmaker’s “Important Women of the 20th-century trilogy”, then you’ll have a good idea of what to expect in terms of style and tone with Maria, his final entry in this thematic series.

Those earlier films, about Jackie Kennedy and Princess Diana, respectively, cast their spotlights on a specific timeframe: with Jackie, it was a week after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, while Spencer focused on the Royal family’s 1991 Christmas celebrations. Both films were beautifully shot and used historical events as their narrative springboards-however, despite featuring glamorous actors and settings, they were ultimately dark psychological dramas.