Couture

It’s not the eye-catching dresses, the celebrity sightings, or the elaborate spectacle of Paris Fashion Week that takes center stage in Couture, but rather the big dreamers just struggling to get by.

This ensemble melodrama scrutinizes the shallow superficiality of the international high-fashion world from the perspective of the naïve models, designers, and support workers who become its victims. However, while it features some effective character-driven moments, the film lacks the depth or fresh insight to become more cumulatively impactful.

In the most prominent of the overlapping narrative strands, Maxine (Angelina Jolie) is a rising filmmaker commissioned to shoot some background visuals to accompany a brand presentation.

The project takes her temporarily away from her daughter back home, but more distressing news comes from her doctor, whose diagnosis prompts her to visit a specialist (Vincent Lindon) — except that she’s afraid to tell anyone amid the deadline pressure.

Eventually, Maxine confides in her cinematographer (Louis Garrel), who offers support. “You spend life preparing for all these things to happen, and then the thing you never saw coming, there it is,” she acknowledges.

We also follow Ada (Anyier Anei), a Sudanese teenager and first-time model starring in Maxine’s production, who struggles with self-esteem issues while trying to earn enough money to enroll in pharmacy school.

Then there’s Angele (Ella Rumpf), a freelance makeup artist who becomes a confidant for Ada, yet whose own dreams of becoming an author have stalled.

At a personal and professional crossroads, each of them must navigate a demanding culture built on artificiality and unrealistic depictions of beauty, as well as the particular stigmas and burdens on women, with the resulting mental and physical toll.

The bilingual screenplay by French director Alice Winocour (Proxima) is a well-intentioned attempt to shine a spotlight on those who toil behind the scenes of the glitz and glamour of the runway in what amounts to an idealistic fantasy world.

Still, none of the overlapping segments stand out on their own with the exception of Maxine’s journey, which benefits from Jolie’s empathetic and fully committed performance.

Perhaps the film is most noteworthy for being the first production to shoot inside Chanel’s exclusive showroom and atelier. But dramatically, that’s a footnote as Couture rambles on without much to say.

Rated R, 103 minutes.