Reel Rundown: ‘Maria,’ with Angelina Jolie, keeps audiences guessing between what is real and what isn’t

Film director Pablo Larrain has become a specialist at documenting the lives of famous women. 

In 2016, he directed “Jackie,” a study of Jacqueline Kennedy (played by Natalie Portman) In 2021, he directed “Spencer,” which explores the life of Britain’s Princess Diana (played by Kristen Stewart). 

Now we have “Maria,” which is streaming on Netflix. Based on a screenplay by Steven Knight, who also wrote “Spencer,” “Maria” – which stars Angelina Jolie – follows the noted soprano Maria Callas during the final week of her life.

This abbreviated look at his subject’s life is typical of Larrain’s style. He has no interest in making a standard biography. He’s far more interested in capturing how each woman responds to particularly trying moments in their respective lives.

In “Jackie,” for example, he limits his attention to what Kennedy had to endure during the days following the assassination of her husband, President John F. Kennedy. “Spencer” focuses on the period when Diana decided to end her marriage to then-Prince, now King Charles.

In a similar manner, “Maria” plays out over Callas’ final seven days (she died at age 53 on Sept. 16, 1977). Having been retired from the stage for the past four-plus years, Callas has become accustomed to spending her days in her expansive Paris apartment.

But it becomes clear early on that something is wrong, and the two people who know her the best – her butler Ferrucio (Pierfrancesco Favino) and her housemaid Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher) – are worried.

For one thing, she declines to see a doctor that Ferrucio has called because she doesn’t think she needs to. But it’s far more likely that she doesn’t want anyone, especially not a doctor, to figure out that she is abusing prescription drugs like Mandax (which is known in the U.S. as Quaalude). And that, as a consequence, she is seriously ill.

For another, she carries on an interview session with a journalist (played by Kodi Smit-McPhee) that both Ferrucio and Bruna suspect is a mere hallucination. And though Larrain keeps us guessing as to what is real and what isn’t, he gives the game away by naming the journalist Mandax.

And finally, Callas attends practice sessions with a conductor (Stephen Ashfield) she once worked with, hoping to once again find the ability to sing.

Larrain augments all this with flashbacks of Callas’ life, many presented in black and white. They include everything from her youth in World War II being forced by her mother to entertain German officers to the years she spent with the Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis – the man who left her to marry none other than Jackie Kennedy.

He also includes snippets of performances from a number of operas, including Verdi’s “Otello,” Bizet’s “Carmen” and Bellini’s “I Puritani.”

Throughout the film, Jolie puts in what may be her best-ever performance. Though the voice that we hear is a blend both of Jolie’s and Callas’, but mostly Callas’, Jolie’s delivery is essentially flawless. And her bearing is as regal as is her diction, whether dismissing concerns about her health or chastising fans for not giving her what she considers the proper respect.

What Callas most desires is best captured in the movie’s climactic moment, which – though again pure fantasy – features her, alone in her apartment, singing the famous aria “Vissi d’Arte” from Puccini’s “Tosca.”

Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of people – including Ferrucio and Bruna – stand transfixed on the street below. Talk about respect.