Product: The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (Region 2) (1999)
Rating: 4.0
"I don't think. I leave that to God. I'm nothing in all this, I'm just the Messenger."
A few unfortunate lines of dialogue aside, it's hard to see why Luc Besson's epic was met with such derision - it's full of some terrific film-making, the battles are the right size, the story's well-told and Milla Jovovich comes over surprisingly well as someone caught somewhere between God's will and psychosis. The inclusion, two hours in, of Dustin Hoffman as her conscience to address her own and the audience's doubts as to whether she is driven by divine guidance or self-delusion is an inspired touch that is completely unexpected in a mainstream epic on this scale. Unfortunately, it's also the point when the film almost crosses the line into Monty Python - the dialogue's just too funny too often, and somehow the notion of a 15th Century French Catholic peasant girl's conscience manifesting itself as a 62-year-old New York Jewish actor in a cowl doesn't seem overly likely. Curiously, these scenes work better on a second viewing when you're not caught so off-guard by them.On a narrative level, these scenes do help punctuate the back-and-forth nature of the trial, but it would have probably been much better to have her in her cell talking to her unseen visions. There are still some compensations. The trial is well-handled, and Timothy West avoids the kind of ham that usually marks his cinematic turns (cf Cry Freedom) to give a surprisingly good performance as a mainly decent man trapped in an impossible situation, very similar to Ray MacAnally's role in The Mission. It's not a flawless film by any means, but it is one of the better and more ambitious 90s epics and one that's long overdue for reappraisal.Columbia's DVD includes the European cut of the film (some 10 minutes longer than the US version), featurette Beyond the Icon, isolated score track and teaser and full trailer.