‘Maria’ (Capsule) Review: A Troubling Visual Feast

The third and final entry of Pablo Larraín’s Historical Women Trilogy, Maria, is a disappointing conclusion to a mostly inspired series. This Maria review was made possible thanks to a screening at the 60th Chicago International Film Festival.

In 2016, director Pablo Larraín set out to make three films about famous women in history, the first entry in the series, Jackie, was met with critical and awards acclaim, along with 2021’s Spencer. In a final attempt to replicate this success, Angelina Jolie and Pablo Larraín have created, Maria, a film following the famous opera singer Maria Callas’ last week before her tragic death. 

Sadly, this film didn’t work for me at all, as it felt like a chore to watch Jolie’s Callas treat her home staff (Pierfrancesco Favino & Alba Rohrwacher) like garbage as she ignores doctors orders and schleps around Paris whilst depressed. The best thing about these drawn-out sequences of the singer wandering, are the beautiful images Larraín and legendary cinematographer Edward Lachman crafted. As this film is releasing on Netflix, if you were to mute your TV while watching these scenes, you’d perfectly be able to place yourself in Callas’ head, and it’s easily the best part of the film as the lived-in 35mm photography constantly holds your attention with its interesting and unpredictable camera placement.

Unfortunately, the cinematography, direction, and performances of Favino & Rohrwacher are my only positives for this film as I was utterly bored throughout its two-hour runtime. Jolie clearly puts so much passion into this portrayal of a historical icon, but the problem is that her character makes the film feel utterly miserable. I know we’re talking about a movie following the last week before somebody dies, but I expect to feel sympathy for said character, and that wasn’t the case here. I knew nothing about Callas before taking my grandmother to see this film as she is a huge fan of Callas, so maybe I was unaware that she treated everyone around her poorly. The film does not feel like a beautiful portrait of an Opera icon, it is a tedious project that feels like it was made with the sole intention of checking off boxes on Academy voter ballots.

Maria premiered at the 81st Venice Film Festival on August 29, 2024. Netflix will release the film in select theaters on November 27th, before it becomes available to stream on December 11th, 2024. Maria was written by Steven Knight and directed by Pablo Larraín, starring Angelina Jolie, Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher, Haluk Bilginer, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Valeria Golino.

If you liked this review of Maria consider checking out our other reviews here at Feature First.