The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc Review
by Frankie Paiva (swpstke AT aol DOT com)May 12th, 2000
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
rated R
148 minutes
starring Milla Jovovich, John Malkovich, Faye Dunaway, and Dustin Hoffman directed by Luc Besson
A Video Review by Frankie Paiva
The story of Joan of Arc is an often told one. Why? That was the question this movie seemed to keep asking me. Why is this story such a popular one when it deals with such heavy themes as Jesus, war, and death? During and after I viewed The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc I got very depressed. The movie was neither enjoyable nor good, even in the historical epic sense. I think it's unfair that Columbia did not pass out doses of Prozac for free with each rental. While this movie is forgettable in an instant, it would really help someone heal emotionally from this awful film going experience.
Joan (Jovovich) is a peasant girl who has been very religious her entire life. At a young age she begins to receive messages from whom she believes to be God. Only later is his message clear. Convinced God wants her to save France from England during the Hundred Years War, she proceeds to the capitol to ask Charles the Dauphin (Malkovich) for an army. She tells him he will soon become king of France. So Charles gives her an army that days later goes into battle under her command. Soon after this battle, Charles does gets crowned king, and doesn't need Joan anymore. She's later captured by the Burgundians who put her to trial in England. Then a new character appears, The Conscience. Dustin Hoffman is Joan's conscience who gets her convinced that her actions derive from madness and not from God. If you paid any attention at all in history class, you can guess how the movie ends.
I'm never a fan of really gritty films and this is certainly one of the them. The violence is outrageously graphic and it's supposed to show the pain and suffering of the armymen. The film succeeds brilliantly at this. The whole movie is a violent, depressing, lifeless, and unoriginal lump. It is however one that does a good job of not seeming that long. Modern war movies are traditionally long and this is no exception. The time seemed to fly by until the seventy minute mark when the film came to a grinding halt for me. Several times I thought of turning it off, but I hanged onto the hope that it might get a bit better. I was wrong. Laughably bad acting is present everywhere. Milla Jovovich cannot act and is best suited to her smaller, more flashy, less line role in Besson's great last film The Fifth Element. John Malkovich (Is he the same actor who was so good as himself in Being John Malkovich?) is surprisingly horrid, Faye Dunaway does nothing but show off medieval headpieces, and Dustin Hoffman is unforgivable. While the text at the beginning of the film is way too small to read on a television screen, if I could have read it, I wished it would have said the following warning:
Save yourself! Save yourself! Jump off a building! Run your nails down a blackboard! Hit yourself over the head with a frying pan! Do anything to get away from this movie!
Yes, it really is that bad.
F
Frankie Paiva
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