The recently released movie, Maleficent, starring Angelina Jolie gives Maleficent's side of the story to the classic fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty.
The complete 180 in the plot makes for an interesting and surprising film because it is not anything that viewers would be able to anticipate. Spoiler alert: some of the plot twists are revealed, below.
1. There are two sides to every story. There is always more than one side to a story and the truth is usually hidden somewhere in between. We should not pass judgement on a situation until all sides of the story are exposed.
2. Heartbreak can push a person take drastic measures. When a person's heart gets broken (especially a woman's), the actions that follow can be very extreme and the polar opposite of their natural tendencies. In Maleficent's case, when her heart was broken she waited and held onto her anger and then leaped at the chance to hurt the man who hurt her, in the worst way possible – his daughter. She cursed Aurora that she would fall into a deep sleep and only be awakened by true love's kiss, something that she believes doe not exist. Therefore, she expected his daughter to never awaken. Ouch.
3. Love can help save the messes we make. No matter how extreme our actions are, for example, cursing your ex's daughter to sleep eternally, love is what can melt a heart of stone caused by heartache. In Maleficent's case, after watching Aurora grow for 16 years, she becomes attached to her and even begins spending time with her and loving her as her own. By beginning to love someone else, her hardened heart begins to soften.
4. True love comes in more forms than a love interest. Most people would automatically correlate true love with a love interest or a significant other. However, Maleficent shows that friends, family members and loved ones are also sources of true love when the prince's kiss does not work to awaken Aurora. Shockingly, Maleficent is the one who awakens Aurora by kissing her on the forehead when she thinks all hope is lost for her. Snaps for Disney mixing up the plot by not having a princess saved by her true love whom she met once for five minutes.
5. Every person is capable of evil. Maleficent did not start out as an evil villain, but the pain that she endured caused her to act in an evil way. We are all capable of being good and bad, but we have to make the decision as to which person we want to be. When hurtful situations occur, we can make malicious decisions to hurt those who hurt us, or we can choose to be the bigger person. The choices we make are what defines the type of person we are.
