{"id":555977,"date":"2026-06-26T22:13:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T22:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/555977\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T22:13:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T22:13:16","slug":"couture-review-angelina-jolie-is-hypnotically-watchable-in-so-so-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/555977\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Couture’ review: Angelina Jolie is hypnotically watchable in so-so drama"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the last decade or so, Angelina Jolie has been on screen less frequently. So when she is \u2014 and not in forgettable tentpoles like \u201cEternals\u201d<\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s worth paying attention. There seems to be a thoughtful intentionality to the roles she now chooses, almost as if this astoundingly famous woman wants to tell us something vital about herself, offering clues into her understandably guarded personal life.<\/p>\n

Take 2015\u2019s \u201cBy the Sea,\u201d<\/a> which she wrote and directed. Coincidentally or not, that pained study of marital dissolution, co-starring Jolie\u2019s then-husband Brad Pitt, intersected with the couple\u2019s real-life breakup \u2014 not to mention Jolie\u2019s grief over the death of her mother, Marcheline Bertrand. Two years ago, Jolie portrayed a version of the elusive, emotionally closed-off opera singer Maria Callas in \u201cMaria.\u201d<\/a> The conception of the role, marked by a dim view of stardom\u2019s suffocating alienation, was something Jolie clearly understood. Moviegoers should be careful not to read too much autobiography into an actor\u2019s creative choices, but Jolie makes such speculation tantalizing, adding additional layers of drama to her films.<\/p>\n

The intermittently affecting \u201cCouture\u201d feels similarly close to her heart, depicting a filmmaker whose life is interrupted by a cancer diagnosis \u2014 a reality Jolie knows all too well. In 2013, she underwent a preventive double mastectomy over concerns of her likelihood to develop breast or ovarian cancer. (Bertrand died of cancer in 2007.) Knowledge of Jolie\u2019s circumstance will inform a viewer\u2019s reaction to her wounded, resilient performance, but our inherent sympathies can only take French writer-director Alice Winocour\u2019s ensemble piece so far.<\/p>\n

Jolie plays Maxine, an American indie director hired to create a flashy opening film for Paris Fashion Week. Newly arrived in the City of Light, she has only a few days to put together the short, assisted by her trusted cinematographer Anton (Louis Garrel). As we deduce from the phone calls Maxine makes back home, she\u2019s also going through an acrimonious divorce and has trouble connecting with her blas\u00e9 teenage daughter. At least this Paris paycheck gig will bolster her finances \u2014 and get her ready for the feature film she\u2019s been wanting to make for years.<\/p>\n

Just then, though, Maxine\u2019s future gets a rewrite. A French doctor (Vincent London) tells her she has breast cancer and needs a double mastectomy immediately. Maybe she can finish the Fashion Week film, but her passion project must wait. An artist and mother who has spent her adulthood in constant motion will have to learn what it means to stop everything and be still.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s title would appear to be a reference to the story\u2019s setting, but in French, \u201ccoutures\u201d can also mean \u201cstitches,\u201d and indeed Winocour sews together three thematically linked story strands. As Maxine wrestles with her cancer diagnosis, an inexperienced South Sudanese model named Ada (Anyier Anei) works Fashion Week so she can send money home to her family. (Ada has no interest in modeling, hoping instead to become a pharmacist.) Meanwhile a makeup artist, Ang\u00e8le (Ella Rumpf), longs to be an author, although she cannot get anyone interested in her writing. Each one becomes a part of the fabric of Fashion Week, but their disparate problems are a far cry from the glitzy event\u2019s self-importance.<\/p>\n

Winocour has often made films about women balancing their public-facing life with their private selves In 2019\u2019s \u201cProxima,\u201d<\/a> Eva Green played an astronaut missing her young daughter. In 2022\u2019s \u201cParis Memories,\u201d<\/a> Virginie Efira starred as an interpreter recovering from the shock of surviving a terrorist attack. Winocour shows us the intimate, vulnerable spaces within her characters that those on the outside don\u2019t have access to.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouture\u2019s\u201d three principals rarely interact with one another, but those meaningful exchanges argue that, amid the mad clatter of the everyday, a brief, unguarded moment with a stranger can be supremely restorative. Unfortunately, the juggling of storylines ends up being more schematic than insightful. Ang\u00e8le\u2019s narrative never catches fire and while Anei is striking as Ada, that section of the film feels slightly patronizing, reducing this immigrant tale to yet another strained salute to perseverance.<\/p>\n

This leaves Jolie as the movie\u2019s magnetic center, with Maxine drifting through despair as she ponders what to do. Her doctor insists that the surgery cannot wait, but putting her ambitions on hold means losing a part of herself \u2014 a different kind of death sentence than the one she\u2019s now facing.<\/p>\n

The character is underwritten but Jolie picks up much of the slack through her silently shattered expression. As she\u2019s gotten older, the Oscar winner has become more comfortable doing less in her performances, allowing for a fragile serenity that is belied by the anguish and anxiety roiling underneath. It\u2019s not just our recognition of the real-life parallels that make Jolie so touching in \u201cCouture\u201d \u2014 it\u2019s that ineffable star power she\u2019s possessed for so long. In a story about a potential tragedy, what\u2019s saddest is that Winocour\u2019s film cannot match its lead\u2019s effortless command.<\/p>\n

‘Couture’<\/p>\n

In French and English, with subtitles<\/p>\n

Rated:<\/b> R, for language, some sexuality, nudity and brief bloody violence<\/p>\n

Running time: <\/b>1 hour, 46 minutes<\/p>\n

Playing:<\/b> Opens Friday, June 26 in limited release<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the last decade or so, Angelina Jolie has been on screen less frequently. So when she is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[53849,237829,237830,47976,40662,9413,18,117,597,237831,19,17,237825,237828,237826,327,32784,524,1217,237827],"class_list":["post-555977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ada","tag-angele","tag-anyier-anei","tag-cancer-diagnosis","tag-couture","tag-death","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-french-doctor","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jolie","tag-marcheline-bertrand","tag-maxine","tag-movies","tag-paris-fashion-week","tag-part","tag-story","tag-winocour"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116818713408705557","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}