Although highly regarded for her acting abilities, Jolie's films to date had often not appealed to a wide audience, but
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) made her an international
superstar. An adaptation of the popular
Tomb Raider videogame, Jolie was required to master a British accent and undergo extensive
martial arts training to play the title role of
Lara Croft. She was generally praised for her physical performance, but the movie generated mostly negative reviews.
Slant Magazine commented, "Angelina Jolie was born to play Lara Croft but [director]
Simon West makes her journey into a game of
Frogger." The movie was a huge international success nonetheless, earning $275 million worldwide, and launched her global reputation as a female action star.
Jolie then starred alongside
Antonio Banderas as the mail-order bride Julia Russell in
Original Sin, a thriller based on the novel Waltz into Darkness by
Cornell Woolrich. The film was a major critical failure, with
The New York Times noting, "The story plunges more precipitously than Ms. Jolie's neckline." In 2002, she played Lanie Kerrigan in
Life or Something Like It, a film about an ambitious TV reporter who is told that she will die in a week. The film was poorly received by critics, though Jolie's performance received positive reviews.
CNN's
Paul Clinton wrote, "Jolie is excellent in her role. Despite some of the ludicrous plot points in the middle of the film, this Academy Award-winning actress is exceedingly believable in her journey towards self-discovery and the true meaning of fulfilling life."
Jolie reprised her role as Lara Croft in
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life in 2003. The
sequel, while not as lucrative as the original, earned $156 million at the international box-office. Later that year Jolie starred in
Beyond Borders, a film about
aid workers in Africa. Although reflecting Jolie's real-life interest in promoting humanitarian relief, the film was critically and financially unsuccessful. The
Los Angeles Times wrote, "Jolie, as she did in her Oscar-winning role in Girl, Interrupted, can bring electricity and believability to roles that have a reality she can understand. She can also, witness the Lara Croft films, do acknowledged cartoons. But the limbo of a hybrid character, a badly written cardboard person in a fly-infested, blood-and-guts world, completely defeats her."
In 2004, Jolie starred alongside
Ethan Hawke in the thriller
Taking Lives, as Illeana Scott, an
FBI profiler summoned to help
Montreal law enforcement hunt down a serial killer. The movie received mixed reviews and
The Hollywood Reporter concluded, "Angelina Jolie plays a role that definitely feels like something she has already done, but she does add an unmistakable dash of excitement and glamour." She also provided the voice of Lola, an
angelfish in the animated
DreamWorks movie
Shark Tale; the cast included
Will Smith,
Martin Scorsese,
Renée Zellweger,
Jack Black and
Robert De Niro. Also in 2004, Jolie had a brief appearance in
Kerry Conran’s Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, a
science fiction adventure film shot with actors entirely in front of a
bluescreen. Jolie then played
Olympias in
Alexander (2004),
Oliver Stone’s biopic about the life of
Alexander the Great. The film failed domestically, with Stone attributing its poor reception to disapproval of the depiction of Alexander’s
bisexuality, but it succeeded internationally, with revenue of $139 million outside the United States.
Jolie at the premiere of
A Mighty Heart in
New York.
Jolie's only movie of 2005, the action-comedy
Mr. & Mrs. Smith, is also her biggest commercial success to date. The film, directed by
Doug Liman, tells the story of a bored married couple who find out that they are both secret assassins. Jolie starred as Jane Smith alongside
Brad Pitt. The film was well received and was generally lauded for the chemistry between the two leads. The
Star Tribune noted, "While the story feels haphazard, the movie gets by on gregarious charm, galloping energy and the stars' thermonuclear screen chemistry." The movie earned over $478 million worldwide, one of the biggest hits of 2005.
Jolie next appeared in
Robert De Niro's
The Good Shepherd (2006), a film about the early history of the
CIA, as seen through the eyes of Edward Wilson, played by
Matt Damon. Jolie co-starred as Margaret Russell, Wilson's neglected wife. According to the
Chicago Tribune, "Jolie ages convincingly throughout, and is blithely unconcerned with how her brittle character is coming off in terms of audience sympathy."
In 2007, Jolie made her directorial debut with the
documentary A Place in Time, which captures the life in 27 locations around the globe during a single week and features fellow actors such as
Jude Law,
Hilary Swank,
Colin Farrell and
Jonny Lee Miller. The film is intended to be distributed through the
National Education Association, mainly in
high schools.Jolie starred as
Mariane Pearl in
Michael Winterbottom's documentary-style drama
A Mighty Heart (2007), about the kidnap and murder of
Wall Street Journal reporter
Daniel Pearl in
Pakistan. The picture is based on Mariane Pearl's memoirs
A Mighty Heart and had its premiere at the
Cannes Film Festival.
The Hollywood Reporter described Jolie's performance as "well-measured and moving", played "with respect and a firm grasp on a difficult accent." The film earned her a fourth
Golden Globe and her third
Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. Jolie also played
Grendel's mother in
Robert Zemeckis' animated epic
Beowulf (2007) which was created through the
motion capture technique.
Jolie has completed shooting the action film
Wanted, an adaptation of a
graphic novel by
Mark Millar, as well as the
DreamWorks animated movie
Kung Fu Panda, both scheduled for summer releases in 2008. She was also cast as the lead in
Clint Eastwood's upcoming drama,
Changeling, which wrapped principle photography in December 2007.
