... FOR SHE’S A JOLIE GOOD FAIRY
Shame this Sleepy Beauty takes so long to wake up...
Back in 1959, when Walt Disney made the original Sleeping Beauty cartoon, film-makers never really worried about what a character’s ‘motivation’ was – what made them the way they were. They just got on with telling the story.
But they sure as heck worry about it now, which is why the opening half hour of Maleficent, the new live-action version of the familiar fairytale, is all about motivation. Why is Maleficent, the wicked fairy who curses the infant Princess Aurora at her christening, so evil? And is she, in fact, quite as evil as we think?
Discovering the answers – at least, early on – is, frankly, not as much fun as it needs to be, which makes the first third of the film undeniably hard work.
Maleficent starts life as a good fairy in the land of Moors. She befriends and falls sweetly in love with a boy, Stefan, who comes from the Kingdom of Men. While Maleficent flits happily around a realm full of fairies with really squeaky voices and playful, mud-flinging toads, it all feels a little laboured and slow, and it certainly relies heavily on the extensive narration to drive the story on.
But eventually we do get to the important bits: on her 16th birthday, Stefan plants what he claims is ‘true love’s kiss’ on Maleficent’s lips, and promptly forgets all about her (as human teenage males are prone to). He returns only after his ageing king has launched an unprovoked attack on the Moors.
Stefan, his love forgotten and his mind corrupted by greed and ambition, senses an opportunity. But he takes it in a way that is so shocking and unexpected in a Disney film – and which has clearly caused debutant director Robert Stromberg very much angst in terms of what he can and cannot show – that it takes you a moment or two to work out what Stefan has actually done. He’s cut off her wings. If Maleficent wasn’t motivated before, she certainly is now.
It’s tempting to say that from here on things improve, but that’s not quite true… yet. Instead, the next section closely tracks the original for a while. The by-now King Stefan (Sharlto Copley) marries and the royal couple have a daughter. They hold a christening… where the whole thing is interrupted by the uninvited Maleficent (Angelina Jolie), her prosthetically enhanced cheekbones bristling with menace. She promptly places the familiar pricking-of-the-finger/spinning-wheel curse on the poor innocent baby.
Now the film finally begins to motor, in particular acquiring both the humour and the
‘Jolie, doing an English accent, gets to show off a little dramatic range and some undeniable comedic talent’
emotional light and shade that had been missing until now. The three good fairies – Knotgrass (Imelda Staunton), Flittle (Lesley Manville) and Thistlewit (Juno Temple) – take human form to guard Princess Aurora and are much funnier as peasant women than they were as fairies, while Jolie, doing an English accent, gets to show off a little dramatic range alongside some undeniable comedic talent.
‘It’s so ugly,’ she sniffs, peering down at the baby through a window in the woodland cottage where Aurora is to be raised, ‘you could almost feel sorry for it.’ The baby beams adoringly back at her.
‘I hate you,’ snaps Maleficent, in a way that not only makes us laugh but also makes us realise it’s not true. Maleficent may still be furious with Stefan but already she’s showing signs of something almost maternal towards Aurora. What a shame she’s placed this unbreakable curse upon her young head, a curse that can only be lifted by ‘true love’s kiss’, which Maleficent has learned the hard way does not exist. Or does it?
As I say, this is Stromberg’s first outing as a director and the former visual effects specialist doesn’t quite deliver the magic, fun and sheer spectacle that we expect from a major Disney feature. Anyone hoping for another Frozen, for example, is likely to be disappointed, with too much of the action unfolding in a dark gloom that is difficult to watch and which 3D does nothing to help.
But, once Elle Fanning takes over to play the teenage princess, I loved the surprisingly subtle conflict of emotions: between the goodness and trust of Aurora, who is sweetly convinced that Maleficent is her fairy godmother, and the fast-faltering wickedness of Big M herself. And as emotions shift, so do our loyalties. This is clearly not going to be entirely the
Sleeping Beauty story we’re familiar with… and that’s rather fun.
It’s still not an unqualified success. South African actor Sharlto Copley is an unlikely choice as the Scottishaccented King Stefan, and former Home And Away star Brenton Thwaites struggles to convey sufficient winning charm as the young Prince Phillip, supposedly destined to deliver ‘true love’s kiss’. Sam Riley fares a lot better as Maleficent’s shape-shifting sidekick, Diaval. But, in the best Disney traditions, it all just about comes good, and the clever ending, which is definitely not the one you’re expecting, is terrific.