As the title would suggest, I have spent my entire day just watching Angelina Jolie films because she understood the assignment as Thena in Eternals which I also enjoyed, so I felt the need to finally join the Angelina Jolie fan club after all these years. There will be spoilers in this review.
Now, the films I watched in the order that I watched them in, were Girl, Interrupted (1999), The Tourist (2011), Gia (1998), and Salt (2010). I think as a fan of Angelina, these films are really able to sort of demonstrate her range as an actress and also showcase the many different facets she has to her body of work.
Now, on to the films themselves.
Girl, Interrupted:
There was something very magnetic about Angelina Jolie in this film as Lisa Rowe, a sociopath in the medical meaning of the word. She draws the eyes towards her, so that even when she is not the main character the plot is currently revolving around, you can’t help bu focus on her. Unfortunately, that’s not what this story should be about. The story should be a story about mental health and the trials and tribulations of youth, displayed in all of the girls from Daisy to Lisa to Georgina. Instead, because of lack of control on the script writer’s part, the film became almost a tribute to Lisa Rowe. That’s not to say Angelina Jolie would not have been as magnetic if the screenwriter had given a little more thought to the other characters, because I have no doubt that she still would have been, but it would have also been nice to explore more of the other character’s through Susanna’s eyes.
And, I love Winona Ryder, I really do. I loved her work on Heathers, and Edward Scissorhands, and Mermaids, and of course, Beetlejuice, but this was not her best work. She felt sort of stunned, half in shock, for the entirety of the film, and there were moments when I think she could’ve, through her movements or facial expressions, made the film deeper than it was. There just never seemed to be any doubt in my mind that she would get better, and get out of Claymore. There was never a moment of suspense or unsurely in my mind about that, even when she was doing things like running away, and I think that in part has to do with both the writing and Winona’s acting.
Overall, I would say that the story itself was very lack luster, and that every moment Lisa Rowe wasn’t onscreen was filled with my hopes that she would come on screen. The movie is a wonderful demonstration of the abilities of Angelina Jolie, and to some extent, Brittany Murphy and Elizabeth Moss, but in terms of storyline and plot was less than amazing.
(I will say though, that I watched a few of the deleted scenes, and I have to say that those scenes really did help flesh out Susanna and the other girls to some extent, so I guess… Blame the editor? Or the studio?)
The Tourist:
I went into this film just expecting a good time, because the film was marketed as a spy movie and romance. I will say, though, that this film exceeded my expectations of it. I had expected it to be just another one of those “popcorn films,” which to me means a film that exists solely for your entertainment and does not actually serve any other purpose, such as stimulating thought. This film was more than I expected, but was still, overall, a “popcorn film,” but one I think of great quality, and certainly more depth than I expected.
To begin with, I really enjoyed the final twist. The twist of the story comes sort of like it does in an O. Henry short story: unexpected but expected. I did not expect it to be true, but then when the twist actually came, I was not so shocked that I didn’t think it feasible. I think that is mostly because of the foreshadowing done in the beginning, most of which I think made perfect sense and looking back, found that it tied to story together very well.
I will also say that I enjoyed the artistic choices of the film, and the poetic nature of the love story it is telling. The aesthetic of the clothing that Jolie dons in the film suits the beautiful city of Venice very well, and the choice to use Janus as a recurring symbol throughout the film makes perfect sense when set in the love story the film is telling. This is perhaps best explained by Jolie’s character Elise Clifton-Ward herself: “She wanted to teach me that people have two sides. A good side, a bad side, a past, a future. And that we must embrace both in someone we love.” And what’s intriguing about this love story is that at first, it seems a bit absurd. I mean, how does an undercover agent just chose to blow her cover for love as soon as she meets this man on the train, especially when they’ve only known each other for a little while? That hardly makes sense.
Then it is revealed that the man on the train, Frank, is the man she loved all along, her Alexander. In context, her sudden departure from the norm makes sense: this is the man she has loved for years, and what’s even more beautiful is that without knowing that Frank is Alexander, she fell in love with him again. That’s where the beauty of this story comes from. Even when you can’t recognise me, you still fell in love with me, choosing me over and over. First she chose Alexander over her duty as an agent; then she chose Frank over her means of a living. Either way, she chose him, in some form or another, every time.
I loved this film, as you can probably tell.
Gia:
This is probably the deepest and darkest film that I saw today, and certainly the saddest. I think the biggest thing that made the film such a touching work of art was the fact that this story is based on a true story, and the audience can do nothing but watch as a beautiful life is ruined, as shining star plummets to the depths of darkness. I think Angelina Jolie summarised the character well: “When she's free and just being herself, she's unbelievable; that's the tragedy of her story. You think, ‘God, she didn't need drugs -- she was a drug.’”
And Gia was.
This film is such a deep critique on the way that society treats women, especially young and beautiful women, telling them again and again that they are worth nothing more than their beauty, but at the same time telling them that their beauty is not irreplaceable, that their beauty is just one that can exist so long as another, more beautiful, does not come along. It is a discussion on the cruelty of the fashion world, when these people were the ones who dragged Gia down in the first place, but then abandoned her and left her to die. It is a discussion of life, and work, and what they mean to one and other and what they mean to a person. It is a discussion of love, of loss, of what it means to love a person but also what it means to lose a person and how both those things can hurt like nothing else.
It is also, surprisingly, a discussion about the LGBTQ community. Gia’s girls, or so they are called, are women in the fashion industry who identify as lesbian or bisexual, and it wasn’t until I watched this film that I knew of her status as an LGBTQ community icon, a woman who epitomized lesbian chic before that was ever a thing, a star that was called back above at the tender age of twenty six, a soul who suffered too much and enjoyed too little of her time on this planet.
Angelina Jolie’s portrayal of this character was mesmerizing. She captured the rebellion and the fire in Gia Carangi, but also the betrayal and the death that the drugs bring to every user. She captured the desperate and the good, the cruelty and the kindness of the world, and all of that she combined into a character who was so capturing on screen that the film became, like Gia, so quickly “of the moment,” and like Gia, so quickly “became part of the past.” This character was like a shooting star, blazing through the night, but only for such a short time before the curtains closed and it fell back into oblivion.
I also enjoyed this film, but this film sparked more though and inspiration in me than the other two, and this film was more than just a case study of Angelina Jolie’s acting abilities, but more of a study of the nature of life, something that deserves to be quietly taken in and understood.
And finally,
Salt:
Salt was a welcome distraction from the dystopian world and depressing story of Gia, which is in part why I chose to watch this film as the last film of Angelina Jolie’s that I would watch today. In part it was because this film is almost textbook “popcorn film” in a way that only spy movies can be. But I will also say that as a film that is not meant to provoke thought, it was a high quality one, and certainly has its merits.
To begin with, I think the best part of the film was watching Jolie kick butt. And I say butt, because how can one use any other word in the presence of such a magnificent action goddess?
Her action scenes I think were the highlight of the film, and the film itself wasn’t really that unique or mind blowing, but it did have a lovely premise as a spy film. Basically, Russian soldiers have been infiltrating the American system for years in preparation for this Day X thing, and now it is beginning.
I watched the ending where Salt blows up her childhood training center to avenge her husband, but I will say that the twist where Salt is not actually who the world thinks she is was done well. There were various places to foreshadow this (such as when she picked up a spider, which to me was just a very interesting move at the time, but then turned out to be more meaningful), and how she didn’t kill the commander or something (I have no idea what the title of any of the men who were in the film was, but one of the dudes yeah).
Overall, the film wasn’t terrible, and I understand why people like it. I also understand why it didn’t get a sequel though, because it sort of rings too similar to many other spy films I have seen in the past.
Okay, that’s all I got. Probably will take a break now from films and start watching some TV. I’ve been meaning to watch Penny Dreadful for so long; it might be time.
Happy Friday!! P.S. Happy birthday to one of my friends even though she will never see this post. Happy 17th!
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