Maria Plot Summary
Maria (2024) is a surreal biopic on the legendary opera singer, Maria Callas. It is helmed by Pablo Larraín and is his third instalment of 20th-century women biopics following Jackie and Spencer. But this womanly enterprise acknowledges another female legend and that is Angelina Jolie who makes her Hollywood comeback as the titular character.
From the get-go, viewers know that they are in for a ride as the movie opens with one of Callas’ popular pieces. Even viewers with no prior opera knowledge can enjoy this beautiful treat to the eyes and ears as Maria relives the ups and downs of Maria Callas’ illustrious career. She spends her last few years in Paris, trying to regain her lost singing voice.
Well, given the psychological treatment and a bittersweet conclusion, here is an ending-explained article on the movie, Maria.
Who is Maria Callas talking to?
At the beginning of the movie, Maria claims that she is being interviewed by the aspiring filmmaker, Mandrax. However, her drugs are called Mandrax and she takes them at liberty. On top of that, no one notices the interview crew who comes and goes at random moments.
When they finally vanish the first time, Maria acknowledges at the restaurant that she is talking to herself as she is writing her biography in the form of an aria. But she doesn’t want to write it down as she prefers keeping it all in her head.
The fact that Mandrax is imaginary is further evident when he breaks protocol and speaks in callous language as he pushes Maria to sing. In an interview, Jolie confirms that Maria is talking to the drugs she is taking.
However, there is a second layer to the inclusion of Mandrax who constantly breaks the fourth wall. Mandrax can be a self-insert of Pablo Larrain as he reimagines what it would be like had he been able to actually follow Maria Callas around and learn about her life.
She tells “him” everything she couldn’t tell other people, like why she loved the arrogant Onassis or why she wants to sing again.
By the end of the movie, she turns to him when she is on the verge of a breakdown such as the reporter jumping her after her ‘Anna Bolena’ performance. Interviews reveal that this particular number was all Angelina Jolie!
What is wrong with Maria?
Throughout the movie, Maria takes more pills than she needs to and she goes days without eating. She has also been physically unwell while performing on the stage. She hallucinates the interview squad and it starts getting to her when she wonders if she is hallucinating her sister as well who visits her after years.
Maria and her butler, Ferruccio constantly talk about insanity making viewers wonder if she has gone insane. She is also hesitant about the doctor checking on her and uses her sister to buy pills secretly and avoid the scrutiny of her caretakers. To avoid Ferrucio having a stricter hold on her, she keeps him busy and punishes him by making him move the piano around.
However, he is able to one-up her and invite the doctor. It is revealed that she is on multiple medicines including steroids which makes her susceptible to liver and heart failure. The doctor adds that by trying to find her singing voice again, the extra stress will kill her. Even her sister begs her not to sing, to give up her La Callas persona.
Why does Maria want to sing again?
After Maria starts falling ill while performing, she loses her singing voice and is unable to sing the way she used to. She starts visiting her composer friend, Jeffrey Tate who tries to help her regain her voice.
When Mandrax asks why she insists on regaining it – she claims it is because she has lost it. She wants to feel what she felt when she used to sing.
She is so desperate that she goes from not wanting to listen to her own recordings (since she believes they are inauthenticly preserved) to listening to them begrudgingly. She explains that if she is to become La Callas again, she needs to listen to it and compare it with her current voice.
When the doctor begs her to stop, she reveals the real reason. People all around her controlled her singing – her mother forced her to sing and seduce Nazi officers while her partner, Onassis tried to stop her as he hated opera. And when she did have some modicum of freedom, she sang for the public, an audience. She declares that she is finally in control of her life and her fate. She wants to sing for herself.
Does Maria ever get her singing voice back?
While Ferruccio moves the piano around as punishment, in the end, he does it willingly to cheer up Maria when she accepts her fate. She is barely conscious and her caretakers try to give her space by going to the market.
She has taken multiple pills and her life flashes by her. She imagines that her voice is back and she is singing to an orchestra in the living room which is now empty of the piano. Onassis’ hallucination is present as well as Mandrax.
It turns out that she is singing for real, as downstairs, the neighbourhood including the caretakers can hear her. Ferruccio looks happy before rushing upstairs with the housemaid, Bruna. Unfortunately, they see that Maria has died due to heart failure.
Read More: Maria Movie Review