Jolie, whose combination of artistry and larger-than-life stardom makes her the only actress who could play this part right now, is luminous.

“Maria,” Pablo Larraín’s cinematic portrait of opera legend Maria Callas, arrives as the third of the director’s films centered on iconic women of the 20th century.

While the glamorous role of a declining opera diva would seem perfect for a star of Jolie's profile, it's undernourished by the screenplay's limited conception.

Angelina Jolie glides through the final days of Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín’s “Maria." Currently playing in select theaters and streaming on Netflix Dec. 11, “Maria," rated R, plays like an opera, grandly theatrical and evocative of a larger-than-life star.

The important thing to know going into “Maria” is that it’s the third in a trilogy of films directed by the Chilean whirlwind Pablo Larraín that seek to recover the women behind the plaster saints of 20th-century iconography.

Angelina Jolie delivers a stirring performance as Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín's film 'Maria.' Despite years of stepping back from acting, Jolie finds renewed energy, potentially earning her a third Oscar nomination.

And for the first time in years, Jolie is back in the spotlight, in full movie-star mode. Her commanding performance in “Maria” seems assured