MariaReviews: What Critics Are Saying About Angelina Jolie's Transformation and Singing as the Opera Diva

Mar. 15, 2025

Angelina Jolie in “Maria”.Photo:Pablo Larraín

Pablo Larraín

Early reactions toAngelina Jolie’s latest movie are signaling the superstar’s triumphant return to the big screen.

Maria, director Pablo Larraín’s newbiopic about opera singer Maria Callas,premieredat theVenice International Film Festivalon Thursday, Aug. 29.

Deadlinefilm critic Stephanie Bunbury described Jolie, 49, as “an almost magical match for the real diva,” in a review of the film.

Angelina Jolie in “Maria”.Pablo Larrai­n

Pablo Larrai­n

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Variety’s Owen Gleiberman wrote that Jolie “seizes our attention, playing Maria as woman of wiles who is imperious, mysterious, fusing the life force of a genius diva with the downbeat emotional fire of a femme fatale,” in the movie, while expressing some issues with the film as a whole.

“Jolie, for the first time in years, reminds you that she can be a deadly serious actor of commanding subtlety and power,” Gleiberman added.

Writing for the film and television websiteLittle White Lies,Hannah Strongasserted that Jolie has “found the role of a lifetime” in a similar manner toNatalie Portman’s portrayal ofJackie Kennedyin Larraín’s 2016 filmJackie.

“It’s quite something to watch a woman as instantly recognizable as Jolie be so bewitching while playing someone else incredibly famous (always a challenge in biopics where footage of the subject exists) and without the layers of prosthetics that actors normally rely on to ‘transform,’ " she wrote. “Yet Jolie achieves such with a refined purr of a European accent and something equally feile in her gait.”

Angelina Jolie in “Maria”.Pablo Larraín

“I take very seriously the responsibility to Maria’s life and legacy.I will give all I can to meet the challenge,” Jolie said in a statement when the project was announced in 2022. Callas, who became an international sensation thanks to her three-octave vocal range, died in Paris in 1977 of a heart attack, according toThe Guardian.

Maria, also set to screen at the Telluride Film Festival this weekend, does not yet have a release date;Netflixpurchased the film’s distribution rights.

source: people.com