Al's Omniflick: Maleficent

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Maleficent

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Robert Stromberg Starring: Anjelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Imelda Staunton, Lesley Manville, Juno Temple, and Sam Riley

Maleficent, the former nether-hellion from Cinderella, is back but with a character make-over that is both sympathetic and more nuanced. She is also now an anti-heroine and I found myself cheering her on and frowning at the wrongs visited upon her.

Starring a well-cast Anjelina Jolie in the title role, Maleficent is a fairy in a nature-friendly kingdom that is the very incarnation of utopian perfection. Almost adjacent to the kingdom is another; inhabited by humans and ruled by King Henry (Kenneth Cranham) who is determined to destroy everything Maleficent and her kind call home. Tangling this development is Maleficent's love for a human prince named Stefan (Sharlto Copley), who once reciprocated her love.

Maleficent's kingdom suffers an unprovoked attack but the humans are no match for the fairy Queen and the formidable creatures she can summon; including tree-like entities who resemble Tolkien's Ents. Maleficent can also vent her fury on the humans with frightening wings that can cause powerful gusts and batter humans senselessly. The attack is repelled but King Henry on his deathbed promises the crown to whomever can slay Maleficent; a task Stefan undertakes but with reluctance and reservation.

Stefan returns to Maleficent, downplaying his role in the attack and in doing so, charms her. As she slumbers, Stefan slices her wings from her body, which severely diminishes her power in literal and figurative ways.

In presenting the wings to the king, Stefan secures the crown and adding grievous insult to ignominious injury, marries another woman who bears him a beautiful daughter named Aurora. On the day she is to receive magical gifts from three fairies Flittle (Lesley Manville), Knotgrass (Imelda Staunton) and Thistletwit (Juno Temple), Maleficent arrives to curse the child (you know how) and vex King Stefan in the process.

The fairies hide Aurora in the forest but Maleficent's raven/humanoid assistant Diaval (Sam Riley) is able to locate the princess-protection program, thereby allowing the Queen access to the baby. But in a refreshing departure from the conventional story, Maleficent guides rather than menaces Aurora, becoming a maternal figure of sorts. It is King Stefan, in this story, who is the nemesis and baddie. The film leads to a showdown between the adversaries, which is yet another departure from the Cinderella story we all know.

I really liked Anjelina Jolie is this role, which she wears like a comfortable, sexy, cashmere coat. She relishes the mannerisms and her otherworldly facial beauty almost steals the show. Her characteristic high cheekbones are accentuated by prosthetics, which lend her face a sinister beauty while her false-color contacts only mesmerize.
I've tired of her recent roles where she plays CIA-like operatives who can leap from bridges and run up walls to deliver bad-ass kicks. Maleficent is a welcome change for Jolie and she performs beautifully. The supporting cast are quite terrific also: Manville, Staunton and Temple bring bumbling humor to the fairy roles while Sam Riley--always the dark, brooding, edgy presence in other films--has the opportunity to shine in a lighter, more amusing role as Maleficent's factotum. Elle Fanning is the precious innocent, who contrasts nicely with Anjelina Jolie's demonic appearance.

In Cinderella, women are either threatening or frivolous or passive things in need of true love's kiss but this 21st century revisionist take will have none of that. Maleficent is the misunderstood and wronged party and it isn't her rage and thirst for vengeance that threatens the peace but King Stefan. It seems entirely natural that Maleficent would take Aurora under her wing (if you forgive the expression) and guide her rather than dispatch her with a spindle from a spinning wheel.

We root for Maleficent now. It will be nigh impossible to watch Cinderella again without pulling for the woman who was heretofore known as the story's antagonist. Maleficent is a pleasant surprise. It is hardly earth-shaking but it is fun to watch and much of the credit for that goes to Anjelina Jolie, who seduces us with her beauty and wields power the way she wields her wings; with judicial authority and feminine resolve.

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On DVD

Fury (1936)

Director: Fritz Lang

Though we might normally think of the films M and Metropolis when director Fritz Lang becomes the topic of conversation, less known is the legendary director's work in Hollywood. Having fled the ever-growing menace of Nazi Germany for America in the early 1930s', Lang eventually found himself under contract for MGM.

Though his work in Hollywood is very uneven, one standout is Fury, from 1936. Starring Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sydney, the film's condemnation of mob justice seems spectacularly daring now, considering lynching was still a reality in Depression-era America. We don't see one black person in the film entire but we know precisely for whom Lang film is sympathetic.

Spencer Tracy plays Joe Wilson, who is arrested in a small town while en route to meet his fiance, Katherine (Sylvia Sydney). Suspected of being part of a kidnapping of a little girl, Wilson is arrested on the flimsiest evidence. While he sits in cell; angry and indignant, Katherine is puzzled as to why her fiance hasn't arrived at their prearranged meeting place.

But Wilson's fortunes take a darker and more dangerous turn when a mob--already on edge--is roused to anger. Egging one another on, the mob moves on the jailhouse where Wilson is being held. As the angry gathering becomes a mass, drawing citizens of the town into their swelling numbers, a lynch-mob begins to form. The sheriff, determined to see due process take its course, refuses their forceful demands. Becoming angrier and angrier and bolder and bolder, the crowd storms the jail, overwhelming the sheriff and his deputies. Unable to unlock the cell doors to reach Wilson, the mob sets the jailhouse ablaze as an alternate method of lynching.

Katherine, having arrived on the scene, faints when she sees flames engulf the cell where her fiance is held.

In spite of the mob acting as a faceless entity, its principle members are brought to trial though the town and the defendants maintain a conspiracy of silence, hoping to escape convictions and censure.

A sure acquittal seems imminent until damning evidence assures their guilt. When the majority of the members receive death sentences, Wilson turns up at his brothers, having survived the fire. Knowing the public is unaware of his survival, he vows to stay in hiding to ensure the mob conspirators are executed.

The scene where Katherine, nearly insane from grief, comes face to face with Joe is a powerful moment in the film. As she slowly recovers from her state, she realizes Joe's vindictive determination to see the mob hang is in itself a great injustice.

The story climaxes during a stirring courtroom scene that brings the fascinating story to a close.

I would have never expected Hollywood to make a statement as powerful as Fury made in 1936. Given the fact that lynchings in America at the time went unpunished, the movie railed bravely, in spite of the main character being white rather than black, against what was then the status quo. The Oxbow Incident would make a similar and commensurately powerful statement seven years later.

The film's willingness to peer into the darker side of American life could be partly attributed to Lang, who co-wrote the story and who was no stranger to exploring the darker side of humanity. Having seen evil flower in his home country, it makes sense Lang would choose to tell this story.

Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sydney give wonderful, emotionally layered performances. Katherine's near descent into madness is depicted touchingly by Sydney. To see Tracy's mild-mannered Wilson become angry and vengeful is heartbreaking.

Even watching Lang's film on a small screen does little to diminish its power. Weeks after the viewing, I still can't shake its indelible images or its angry indictment of one of America's great crimes. One couldn't devise a better title than one it was given eighty years ago. Fury indeed.