Angelina Jolie: Mistress of Disdain
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
PG cert, 119 min ★★★★★ Dir Joachim Rønning
Starring Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Harris Dickinson, Sam Riley, Ed Skrein, Imelda Staunton, Lesley Manville, Juno Temple, Robert Lindsay
Even by the well-known standards of Angelina Jolie aloofness, her performance in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil might set a new bar. Sure, it’s the whole point of her title character, in Disney’s extravagant fantasy sequel, to haughtily ignore the concerns of lesser mortals, but there’s a fine line between projecting sub-zero disdain within your film and seeming to want the whole thing over with.
Hugely profitable as it was, 2014’s Maleficent was never much of a hit with critics, who had only Jolie’s furious, horned bad-ass of a fairy godmother to latch on to. Here, there’s barely even that. The new film needs her twice: she’s required to show face in the run-up to blonde princess Aurora (Elle Fanning) getting married, and then to drag herself back for an immense castle showdown at the end.
In between, she has little to do but cool her heels in some arbitrary magical caverns with fellow fairy-folk, including new characters played by Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ed Skrein, while the dominant focus is elsewhere. She’s not so much Mistress of Evil in this thing as Mistress of Barely Showing Up.
At least as much screen time goes to Michelle Pfeiffer as Aurora’s mother-inlaw-to-be, Queen Ingrith. Kitted out with a fabulous gorget she may be, but Pfeiffer can do wicked-witch scheming in her sleep and practically does. We’ve seen so much of this from her – in Stardust, The Witches of Eastwick, and so on – that the excitement of her comeback in this multiplex context is stunted by the assignment. Is there any chance Hollywood could cast her as not a witch? And maybe we could have the fresh pleasure of someone else (Debra Winger? Sharon Stone?) having a go?
There’s one set-piece where the film actually does bode well – a prenuptial banquet thrown by Aurora’s in-laws, with Maleficent as guest of honour on her best behaviour. Her goddaughter’s betrothed, Prince Phillip (a dashing Harris Dickinson, replacing Brenton Thwaites) and his father, King John (Robert Lindsay), can only wince and placate as a promising witch-off brews, but Jolie and Pfeiffer then spend the next hour of the film in bored competition with the special effects.
The grand finale is a picturesque aerial siege, with our heroine’s winged allies being picked off in bursting puffs of red smoke, and the vertiginous castle walls looming behind as Pfeiffer calls the shots. It gives you plenty to look at, even if you could say it’s been Avatarred and feathered to within an inch of its life. It’s the gaping hole in the middle – insert story, any story – that no one has figured out how to plug.