Product: The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (Region 2) (1999)
Rating: 3.0
Good but not great
The film was visually beautiful but it felt like it dragged on for too long. What this film added, which I thought was brilliant, was Dustin Hoffman as Joan's conscience or perhaps God if you want to look at it that way. Towards the end Joan questions her actions and we really get taken aback by the fact that Joan, in a way, contradicted herself throughout the film. I thought this was actually fascinating the way her consciense took her back and made her question whether God was the voice she was listening too. It made her more human and actually shed some light onto the fact that perhaps young Joan was a bit crazy. It was a good film but it could have been shorter. I thought Milla Jovavich was wonderful, but John Malkovich as the Dauphin was a bit to subtle--he borderlined parody. Dustin Hoffman was great too.