Movie Review: Maria (the last days of Maria Callas)

Maria

Maria Callas, the world's greatest opera singer, lives the last days of her
life in 1970s Paris, as she confronts her identity and life.

This is probably the best of the current crop of musician biographies, both of
real (Maestro/Bernstein) and not real (Tár/Lydia Tár). Angelina Jolie does a
fine job making us believe she is Callas and it puts her music in the
forefront of the movie. According to the perpetrators of the movie, the
singing is a blend of both Callas's recordings and Jolie's singing, but I
didn't hear much from Jolie, which is a Good Thing. They put some work into
Jolie to get her to look like she's really singing, and it paid off, much more
than Maestro's Bradley Cooper's conducting did.

The story of Callas's last days (dying at age 53) is necessarily a sad one,
but the movie doesn't revel in it, and Jolie shows fire and energy despite
losing her lover, her voice, and her health.

I'd go with a recommendation to watch it, not only to hear Callas's greatest
hits, but for the story line and depiction.

It's on Netflix and in theaters.

-Owen