Angelina Jolie Movie Tanks - I Wonder Why?

I watched a Jolie movie a while ago - released on TV - where she plays the supporting actress role as an institutionalized woman in Girl, Interrupted with the pathetic Winona Ryder in the star role. I admit that she does steal the movie away from Ryder, which is not hard to do since Ryder plays herself in the film's lead, as a character with zero self-confidence, who is bedazzled by the aggressive Jolie.

Acting is a talent which Jolie doesn't have. She simply resorted to hyperbole in her "psychiatric patient" role in Girl Interrupted, over-exaggerating and forcefully attacking what could have been a subtly interesting character.

I watched a film of hers again recently - The Changeling - but walked out of it and I really can't remember any of its details.

Well, here is a much-touted movie with star actors - Jolie and Johnny Depp - which has tanked according to the movie statistics. Film critic Roger Ebert writes:

[I]t doesn’t matter that the plot is absurd. That goes with the territory. But if it’s not going to be nonstop idiotic action, then the acting and dialogue need a little style and grace and kidding around.

He continues:

In theory, these two should engage in witty flirtation and droll understatement. In practice, no one seems to have alerted Depp that the movie is a farce.

I've always found that Jolie (and Depp, but especially Jolie) take themselves very, very seriously as actors. Jolie does so to the extent that instead of acting, she just plays an inflated, self-conscious version of herself. I suppose that is what all narcissists do, which is to blow themselves up so much that all that is left is helium.

Of course, the adoring fans (critics and movie goers alike) didn't figure this out until it was too late. Now, they are forced to backtrack on all that adulation, and are deserting their heroin/heroine [I added heroine after I spotted what could have been a spelling mistake. But Jolie as the heroin-gone-bad for these star-addicted fans actually works!] in hordes either by simply not attending her movie, or canning it with their reviews. Top critics at Rotten Tomatoes gave it an incredible 7% rating. At least it scored higher than Madonna's painful foray into acting in Swept Away which got hit with 5%. But Madonna's excuse can be that she's only a singer. What excuse does Jolie have?

I think something else it at play than mere bad acting. I think fans are tired of Jolie's relentlessly bad personality. After all, there are many films with many bad actors who still garner enthusiastic support. Fans are usually forgiving, as long as they sense some kind of remorse for a marriage gone bad, for raising difficult children, and even the occasional drunken arrest - it is incredible that Robert Downey Jr. is making a comeback. But Jolie has crossed that "forgiveness" line.

Let's not forget that Jolie seduced Brad Pitt from his wife, the much-loved Jennifer Aniston, who played the ordinary but lovable Rachel on the highly popular comedy series Friends. But Aniston is actually a good, solid actress, and this gives her a double edge when alongside Jolie, who has no off-screen popularity to fall back on. And when comedians come to your rescue rather than to toast you, as did Chelsea Handler in a tirade of support for her friend Jennifer, recounting the horrendous treatment Aniston received both from her cheating ex-husband and his live-in, you have surely gained a huge place in the public's sympathy. And Chandler has no sympathy for Jolie's "charity" work either.

"She's a homewrecker, she is," Handler, 35, said of Jolie, the current of love of Aniston's ex Brad Pitt. "She can rescue as many babies from as many countries as she wants to..."

I think the public has also had it with Jolie's smorgasbord of a family. There is only so far "international" adoption will take a star. Western people are generous with their money, and Americans lead the world in charitable contributions, yet there is always a limit to people's kindness.

Collecting children from the four corners of the world just looks weird, if not cruel. Jolie's adoptions are now being seen as a psychological imbalance rather than as a quest to really help the world's poor. It didn't do Mia Farrow any good. The camouflage that Jolie enclosed herself behind is slowly eroding, and we are seeing her for what she really is. A bad actress, with personality problems who is harming the innocents that get in her way.