“A Mighty Heart” (2007)
For our money the closest Angelina Jolie has ever come to truly “disappearing” into a role, and tamping down her stratospheric star power in service of the reality of a character—maybe her most convincing bid to be accepted as an actress as opposed to a star—was with this small-scale Michael Winterbottom film. Based on the true and truly tragic story of the 2002 kidnapping of American/Israeli journalist Daniel Pearl and his videotaped execution by Al-Qaeda nine days later, the film in fact took as the substance of its story the search for Pearl during those excruciating nine days, as seen through the eyes of his wife Mariane, then pregnant with their first child. In fact, it’s based on Mariane Pearl’s book of the same name, and while some criticisms were levelled at the casting of Jolie as the mixed-race Mariane, in fact it was the film’s subject herself who chose her for the role, reportedly saying “it is not about the color of your skin. It is about who you are. I asked her to play the role—even though she is way more beautiful than I am—because I felt a real kinship to her.” It’s a kinship that comes across in Jolie’s performance, which is utterly respectful of the real woman and plays to both the terrible sorrow of her situation and to her undeniable strength. And it’s crucial that she does, because otherwise the film, detailing a story of which anyone who’d strayed near a news channel knew the shocking ending, would have had little purchase on our attention. As compelling as it is, it’s largely down to Jolie, who, shorn of action heroics or even obvious attention-getting traits is quite riveting as a woman caught in the desperate space between dwindling hope and growing fear. It was also the first real onscreen glimpse we had at the politically engaged Jolie, a UN ambassador since 2001, who’d go on to make a Bosnian war film for her directorial debut.
“Changeling” (2008)
Almost a decade on from “Girl Interrupted,” Jolie picked up her second Oscar nomination, and her first in the Lead category, for this Clint Eastwood melodrama, and while the film leaves very much to desire, the nod was certainly deserved, overdue even (she was tipped for one, but shut out, for “A Mighty Heart“). Based on a true story, and penned by “Babylon 5” creator J. Michael Straczynski, it sees Jolie as Christine Collins, an L.A. mother whose 9-year-old son Walter goes missing. Months later, the cops return a boy who’s patently a different child: Collins refuses to accept him, and is forcibly committed to a psychiatric ward by the LAPD, led by the malevolent Captain Jones (Jeffrey Donovan). It’s certainly a remarkable story, but one of the least interesting possible tellings of it imaginable and it’s no surprise to learn that Eastwood stepped in for original director Ron Howard late in the game. It’s handsomely mounted, certainly, with fine period production design and some strong photography from Tom Stern, but the scripting is lacking in nuance, with the heroes saintly and the villains demonic, and the film has the let’s-trudge-through-the-story approach of the worst of late-period Eastwood. Fortunately, the day is saved somewhat by Jolie. Her transformation is subtler than the one in “A Mighty Heart,” but no less notable, and she mostly manages to underplay things in a script that seems to invite hysteria at every opportunity. To date, it’s the last time she had real dramatic material to get her teeth into: we hope that next time she goes into this territory, it’s with subtler writing behind her.
Honorable Mentions: There’s a few more solid Jolie performances in questionable movies where that came from. Like we said, “Kung Fu Panda” might be the best film she was ever involved in as an actor, and her vocal turn as Tigress in both that and its sequel is warm and vulnerable. She’s also at her most vampish as Grendel’s mother in Robert Zemeckis‘ interesting-but-flawed motion-capture adventure “Beowulf,” arguably her third-best movie.
Back in the live-action world, she first (if you exclude, uh, “Cyborg 2“) came to people’s attention in Iain Softley‘s “Hackers,” a very silly film that dated as soon as it wrapped, but at least which gave her a good early showcase for her unique screen presence. She’s also solid in girl-gang drama “Foxfire,” and in the now-forgotten ensemble drama “Playing By Heart” as she romances an inexplicably blue-haired Ryan Phillippe.
She’s also fairly good in a hugely underwritten role in the ill-conceived air-traffic controller drama “Pushing Tin,” and with a similarly thin part in Robert De Niro‘s “The Good Shepherd,” while “Salt” provides her with one of her better action showcases, even if the movie is wildly, wildly silly. And from everything we hear about “Maleficent,” it seems like the film might almost be worth seeing just to watch her chew scenery. Still, here’s hoping that she works with a better class of filmmakers and material next time she returns to acting. And again, directorial debut “In The Land Of Blood & Honey,” while little-seen, was pretty decent, so we’re certainly holding out hope for “Unbroken” when it lands later in the year.
