Product: The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (Region 2) (1999)
Rating: 1.0
Abysmal doesn't even cover it.
This unsightly contribution in Milla Jojovich's career proves quite well that, aside from looking breathless, panting and screaming, the actress cannot tackle a serious acting challenge.A true mockery of Joan of Arc, this film conspires to make the Poucelle D'Orleans seem like a deranged woman incapable of controlling an army-- whereas the historical Joan of Arc showed an eerie capacity for military manoeuvres, whose fame became to widespread that entire cities surrendered at the mention of Joan of Arc at their gates.Through her (dictated) letters (for she was presumably illiterate), and her recorded answers to the Inquistion, we have come to know that Joan of Arc, born in Domremy, was an unusually lucid 16-year-old (she was burned at the stake at the age of 19) with a gift for words (which may give credibility that she was actually related to the Dauphin through the bloodline of Anne the Adultress and thus must have received some degree of education), as well as sharing the distinction of being the middle age's most distinguished transvestite (sharing the same historical period as the Basque transvestite and noblewoman Catalina de Erauzo, the Lieutenant Nun).Milla Jojovich's portrayal of Joan of Arc is insulting to anyone that has ever studied this remarkable character, giving us instead a histrionic and half-mad woman who cannot keep her composture for a second and who apparently has the resolution of a twig, fueled into battle by unknown fervors that vanish as soon as the battle scene is over. Joan of Arc was a hard and somewhat fanatical Christian, but in no way was she the blithering idiot that Jojovich's acting makes her out to be. There is also a scene of "self-examination" during Joan's captivity with the Burgundians that serves little point other than to stress the idea that Joan is absolutely nuts. Indeed, all the Damsel of Orleans does through half the movie is to claw and hyperventilate... truly a shameful performance, and abysmal script-writing.If you want a GOOD film about Joan of arc, check out the Criterion Collection and look up Carl Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc, don't waste your time with this Hollywood-produced piece of glitz, filth and shallowness.