Maleficent (PG, 2014)

 

Maleficent first came on my radar because Peter Capaldi was in it.  Unbeknownst to me, however, his entire role was cut from the movie due to rewrites (on the DVD maybe?) – Miranda Richardson’s, too.  Annoying, naturally, but Maleficent is still a decent film, and I thought I might as well blog about it.

 

Telling the story of Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of the villainess, Maleficent pulls a Wicked and flips a classic tale.  It also goes darker than the original story, rather like Snow White and the Huntsman but to a far lesser extent.  It maintains a lot of the old Disney imagery, and the action-packed but entirely bloodless battle sequences inspire a few eye-rolls.  Though I didn’t like it as well as these other retellings, it makes for an enjoyable day at the movies.

 

Maleficent is a denizen of an idyllic fairy kingdom.  All things being equal, she and her people would prefer to live in peace with the neighboring humans, but humans are of course prejudiced towards things they don’t understand, and so the fairies and humans are locked in a quarrel.  When Maleficent’s wings are stolen from her by a human she’d thought she could trust, she transforms into the sorceress we recognize from the movie.  She’s fueled, not by inherent wickedness, but by grief and a desire for retribution, and as she observes the girl she’s cursed, the story takes unfamiliar paths.

 

Much of the film rests on the strength of Angelina Jolie’s performance.  She’s bold, mournful, enraged, and conflicted as the story requires it, and her low, velvety delivery is charged with electricity.  Elle Fanning is unremarkable but effective in the rather underwritten role of Princess Aurora – why does Hollywood so often equate goodness with dullness?  The tormented king is an intriguing character, and I’m fond of Diaval, an enchanted, shapeshifting crow Maleficent enlists to “be her wings” – in human form, he displays intelligence and reason while retaining a distinctly animalistic quality.  The trio of fairies who raise Aurora, however, are almost painfully useless; it’s a waste of the actresses’ talents, especially the fabulous Imelda Staunton

 

Visually, it’s a bit prefab but lovely.  The fairy kingdom is well-rendered and populated with a wide variety of inventive creatures, and some of the magical sequences look pretty cool.  Even though it’s been years (possibly decades) since I saw Sleeping Beauty, I struck by how precisely the CGI/live-action combination recreates the look of the animated original.

 

I won’t get into it for spoilers’ sake, but I like the way that this film and other recent fairytale movies (like Snow White and the Huntsman and Frozen) riff on the idea of True Love breaking spells.  Each film subverts the trope in a different manner, but it’s clear that “I saw this woman once, so my love is obviously strong enough to lift her curse” no longer cuts it.  Can I get a huzzah for that?

 

Warnings

 

Scary scenes, some Disney violence, and thematic elements.