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‘Maria’ Review: Angelina Jolie Is Commanding as Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín’s Lavish but Overly Fatalistic Drama
Pablo Larraín's third inside portrait of a 20th-century female icon feels more limited than "Jackie" or "Spencer" because it's more hemmed in by fate.
She treats the two people who’ve taken care of her for years — her housekeeper, Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher), and her butler and chauffeur, Feruccio (Pierfrancesco Favino) — like vassals whose purpose in life it to cater to her whims. From the moment she appears on screen, she 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. Such is the nature of Maria Callas’s determination to control her destiny that even the hopes of the audience — that she’ll somehow find a way to transcend her funk — aren’t allowed to interfere with her death spiral.
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