Pablo Larraín has done a lot since he started directing films almost 20 years ago, but perhaps the most prolific entries of his career thus far have been his films about important women of the twentieth century. 2016’s Jackie, starring Natalie Portman, about Jacqueline Kennedy, and Spencer, his 2021 Princess Diana biopic starring Kristen Stewart. Both films earned their leading ladies Oscar nominations. And his unofficial trilogy of films about important 20th century women, concludes with Maria, a biopic of famed opera singer Maria Callas, starring Angelina Jolie. 

Maria follows the legendary opera singer Maria Callas in the final days of her life, that she spent in Paris with her staff and her puppies. Maria is looking back on her life, reflecting on her glory as the world’s definitive opera singer of the 20th century, and trying to mentally avoid the events that caused her to lose her voice. But she’s also trying to find that voice within herself again, and desperately wants to sing again. But will anyone still be there to listen?

Maria is a staggeringly beautiful film. From Massimo Cantini Parrini’s stunning costume design to the gorgeous use of pre-existing music, and the cinematography from Ed Lachman, in which everything kind of looks like a painting, there is so much going on here, it’s almost overwhelming aesthetically. And when you combine that kind of sensory overload with the impeccable work star Angelina Jolie is doing here, you have more than enough for a film to earn my seal of approval. 

Angelina Jolie has kind of been wavering in her career recently, and has struggled to find the kind of roles that defined the earlier parts of her career. Her Maria Callas is a somewhat showy performance, but also a very internalized one where the emotions are more present on her face than in what she’s actually saying. This is probably the finest performance of Jolie’s career to date. There’s so much going on with Callas that Jolie lets the viewer in on little by little, and it culminates in the kind of powerful finale that only an actress of her caliber can achieve. I love it when a person who’s been a movie star but has kind of lost the big roles, decides to halt the easy paycheck gigs and remind everyone of the true artist within them. And that’s absolutely what Jolie is doing here. I would be shocked if her work here did not garner at least an Oscar nomination. 

There’s some nice work here as well from Pierfrancesco Favino and Alba Rohrwacher as members of Callas’ staff who are witnessing this last bit of her decline, trying to help and being kind of powerless to do so. Kodi Smit-McPhee, very good in Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, a few years ago, is also turning in fine work as a reporter who interviews Callas. However, this is kind of a one-woman show, and the performances propping Jolie’s up can only do so much without the magnificence at this film’s core. 

The decision to focus on a crucial part of Callas’ life and not her entire life is a choice I always like in the biopic. I find it kind of grating and annoying when a film will try to follow an important historical figure from birth to death, and this is something that all of the films in Pablo Larraín’s unofficial trilogy of biopics has done. And because of that, I kind of wish he would continue to make films like this about other important women from the twentieth century. He’s one of the few out there doing the biopic right, and doing his subjects justice. 

Maria is not an easy sit, it’s perhaps too depressing for the average Netflix viewer to enjoy, and it’s paced slowly, but methodically. But the costume design, the cinematography and the bravura performance from Angelina Jolie at the center, more than push it over the finish line for me. It’s worth noting that Netflix sent me to an in-person theatrical screening of Maria, and I did not watch this at home for the first time. It’s going to be playing in select theaters starting on Wednesday, and if you can see it projected, I absolutely would. Because I fear Maria might lose something when one is watching it at home. However, the work Angelina Jolie is doing here is worth seeking out no matter how you see it.

Maria will screen in select theaters starting Wednesday, 11/27/24, and will stream globally on Netflix on Wednesday, 12/11/24.