‘Couture’ Review: Angelina Jolie is Coming Apart at the Seams in Alice Winocour’s Underwhelming Fashion House Drama [B-]
Angelina Jolie is a special type of movie star. After being one of the biggest box office draws of the 2000s, she’s slowed down significantly since 2010, with her biggest moneymakers coming in the forms of her voice work in the Kung Fu Panda series and a pair of performances as Maleficent. She then came roaring back with 2024’s Maria, garnering acclaim and (if you ask me) being rudely snubbed of her first Oscar nomination in almost 20 years. As such, it always feels like an event when she chooses to make a film. There’s something admirable about her selectiveness when choosing projects, and while there are many potential reasons why she hasn’t acted as much lately (including personal matters and being a working director in her own right), it does give the films she signs up for an air of immediate prestige. After all, if the highly-discerning Jolie decided to work on a film, there must be something of note to it. This makes it all the more surprising that the most laudable aspect of her latest vehicle Couture, directed and written by Alice Winocour, is, in fact, Jolie’s performance. The multi-perspective film is undoubtedly at its best when Jolie is onscreen, bringing a story to life that, based on what we know about what the actress has gone through, must have resonated with Jolie’s actual experiences. But outside of her admirable work, the film feels surface-level, only lightly exploring the brief life chapters of the women around which the unremarkable screenplay is wrapped.
Essentially, Couture moves between three parallel stories of women all converging on the same place at the same time – namely, Paris during Fashion Week. There’s Ada (Anyier Anei), an inexperienced model who’s come all the way from her home as a refugee in Kenya. Angèle (Ella Rumpf), a makeup artist struggling to align her dreams with her reality. And finally, Maxine (Jolie) is an American director on assignment to film a provocative introductory video for a major fashion house. But notably, all three women are decidedly more interested in doing work different from that which they currently find themselves doing. Ada went to school to be a pharmacist, but was chosen to model by a scout who was struck by her natural beauty. Angèle wants to be a writer, drawing inspiration from her experiences in the cutthroat world of high fashion. And Maxine comes from the realm of low budget horror films, and she finds her brutal artistic impulses to be at odds with the demands of the glamorous fashion folks who hired her. A spirit of longing runs throughout the film, showing that, no matter one’s level of success, it’s always possible to feel dissatisfaction unless one is being true to their actual desires, not sacrificing aspirations for the contentment of an unwanted job.
This conflict between goals and opportunity comes to a head with Maxine. Shortly after beginning work in Paris, she receives a call from her doctor back home in America, who has bad news. Maxine’s latest medical test results show an anomaly that, after confirmation from a Parisian doctor, indicates that she has breast cancer. Obviously, Maxine is shocked, and immediately hops into the bargaining stage of grief, trying to reason with her doctor to let her finish her filmmaking assignment before beginning treatment. But the cold, hard medical facts show that she must begin fighting the disease right away, with no time to spare for artistic creation. It’s no secret that breast cancer has been a major factor in Jolie’s real life – several women in her family contracted and died from it, and Jolie herself underwent a preventive double mastectomy after genetic testing showed that she had a very high chance of developing breast cancer herself. As such, it’s impossible for anyone with even a passing knowledge of Jolie’s personal life to not think of this when watching Maxine receive her devastating diagnosis. But even without knowing that, Jolie is inarguably powerful in these moments. Her initial reaction to the news is quiet; she’s practically frozen as the realization washes over her, quite literally stunning her. And when the tears do come, they feel like upsetting evidence of the sturdy character’s last emotional defenses falling. But still, she doesn’t let the feelings overwhelm her, continuing to press on both in that immediate moment as she grills her doctor for additional information and afterward as she does her best to not let this news impact her daily life. Jolie dynamically portrays an unabashedly steadfast woman who’s unafraid to ask for what she wants or needs, both professionally and personally, and factoring in something outside of her control, like this diagnosis, rattles her but doesn’t defeat her.
Although she gets the least to do of the three women, Rumpf’s portrayal of an MUA with aspirations closer to an MFA is grounded and, when she needs to be, appropriately emotional, including an effective scene where she works to hold back tears while receiving unwanted information. Unfortunately, Anei’s film debut is less remarkable. She’s a striking presence, making it believable that her character would be plucked from obscurity to lead a runway show in Paris. But the actress has a tendency to underdeliver her lines in a way that comes across as almost vacant. However, this may simply be due to the cursory nature of the writing, which feels shockingly simplistic in a way that would make constructing a full character out of Ada’s dialogue and contextual details a challenge for any actress. So many other characters are immediately hostile to her in a way that comes across as absurd (sure, she can’t walk, but there’s no need to be so mean about it).
Maxine is also given some questionable writing, but Jolie, being the experienced pro she is, manages to make it work. Expository dialogue comes across as comically trite – one phone conversation with her soon-to-be ex-husband forces her to deliver lines like “I took this job to pay bills, you know that” (one character reminding another that they’re already aware of a fact always comes across as clangingly false) and, in regard to their daughter, “She’s having a hard time with our divorce, it’s hard for her.” Later in the film, she blurts out a sudden query to another character: “Do you think we’re responsible for what happens to us?” But again, Jolie manages to make such a line work by giving it a tossed-off, almost sheepish quality, as if her character is embarrassed that she even asked it.
To construct the ultra-chic fashion setting of the film, Winocour clearly did her research. Small details, like Angèle using makeup to touch up a model’s damaged feet, give the film dimension and help to underline the themes of distress and dissatisfaction that simmer below many people’s seemingly-ideal existences. The final fashion show is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the aesthetic highlight of the film, from the atypical catwalk to the gorgeous garments that the models, well, model. However, by that point, Couture isn’t able to be entirely rescued by visual splendor. But for anyone who values the presence of Angelina Jolie on a movie screen, the film gives her plenty of runway to show off her invaluable, undeniable gifts as a performer and star.
Grade: B-
Vertical will release Couture only in theaters on June 26.
He currently resides in Chicago and is a proud member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics. He also writes and podcasts for Next Best Picture and co-hosts his own podcast “Halloweeners: A Horror Movie Podcast.” You can follow him on Twitter, Letterboxd, and Bluesky @codymonster91
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