Disney's animated cinematic output has included more than it's fair share of memorable heroes, but likewise it's produced many a striking villain as well. Although, many of those villains were mature women envious of the attractive young princesses in their lives, which is certainly a problematic stereotype.
Maleficent comes from Disney's adaptation of the the Sleeping Beauty fable, and is here re-imagined/retconned not as an envious and vain queen but as a woman scorned. Well, actually it's more brutal than that...far more brutal.
But first, we meet Maleficent as a bright and bubbly pre-teen. She's a horned, winged faery and the benevolent ruler of the Moors, hidden away from the world of man. She wakes up in the morning and greets her community much in the same way Paddington does in his films (although, Paddington's urban London environment is far less unappealing than this vibrant-bordering-on-garish looking CGI abominable reality). Her attention is called to an outsider, a human boy who has stolen a gem from the waters of the Moors. Large tree-like creature seek to restrain him when Maleficent smooths things over and befriends the orphaned peasant boy, Stefan.
Through montage and voice over we learn that Stefan and Maleficent become best of friends and eventually, in their teen years, a romantic couple. But as Stefan ages, his ambition -- now an aide to the king -- starts to blind him to his love, and eventually their love fades. The king attempts a conquest of the Moors and fails brutally, suffering a mortal wound. On his death bed he offers his crown to anyone who brings him the head of the demon woman who leads the fae folk.
Stefan seeks out to warn her but in fact tricks her, drugs her and cuts off her wings.
Yes, you read that correctly. He roofies Maleficent and violates her horrendously.
It's brutal and sobering and honestly shocking. I don't know if the writer or director intended this to be such a strong rape allegory, but in the fallout scenes, Angelina Jolie performance is certainly playing the horror of it. This isn't just a woman scorned, this isn't just the betrayal of her love, it's the vicious abuse of her body for a man to feel powerful. She has every right to be angry, and for what she could do, following her painful recovery, she shows incredible restraint.
When she hears word of Stefan's daughter's birth, she enters the palace and curses the child, to prick her finger on her 16th birthday and sleep forever, granting the one concession of true love's kiss reawakening the child, believing herself that true love cannot exist.
Through vignettes (the whole film is pretty much a series of vignettes, kind of like old Disney storytelling in a way), we see Maleficent watching over the child with hatred, and yet the child reciprocates with smiles and affection. As time passes Maleficent finds herself the shadow guardian of the child, or, as Aurora believes when she discovers Maleficent in broad daylight, she's her fairy godmother.
Now out in the open, Maleficent cant help but adore this child she's basically helped raise from a distance, but she also can't help but feel guilty for the curse she placed upon her. Yadda yadda yadda true love's kiss followed by overlong action sequence, and a happy ending.
It really is a ghastly-looking film beyond some impeccable costuming and make-up (Maleficent is so striking)... had this been a practical film instead of largely CGI it would have been a real marvel. But also the storytelling, the vignette-style, doesn't serve any of the characters particularly well. Relationships between characters imply familiarity more that demonstrate it. There could have been more time spent developing the relationship between Maleficent and Stefan, so that we see, rather than are told, about the distance that grew between them because of the cold and ambitious heart of man. Then the betrayal and assault could have been far more shocking and upsetting, but perhaps, being a Disney film after all, they thought they would temper that by keeping focus squarely on Maleficent.
This film barely holds together, at times, and even at a brisk 97 minutes (with lengthy credits) it drags in spots. Jolie is marvelous, clearly knowing exactly what she wants to put into the role and exactly what we should be getting out of it... the rest of the cast needs more direction. Sharlto Copley makes for an awkward Stefan. We can see from the outset his intentions as Stefan (we're also basically told), so there's no moments where he doesn't have an air of nefariousness. Elle Fanning plays the princess Aurora, and she's asked basically to be bright and sunny and love everything, which she does, but there's no personality behind the role, and really, not much of a role there for her to play. She's the film's maguffin, in a sense, but she should have been more.
I'm not certain a...less novice director than Robert Stromber (his first film, coming from effects and art direction) could have saved the vignette style of the script, but think of the meal Guillermo Del Toro could have made of this. Word was Tim Burton was originally interested in directing, which is probably for the best he didn't as it would have been Alice In Wonderland Burton and not Edward Scissorhands Burton. But Edward Scissorhands Burton would have been perfect as well.
I admire what Disney was trying to do with Maleficent as both a story and a character, and while the execution let the story down tremendously, the character actually comes through for the better.
[Toast's take from 2014, we agree]
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