# Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, The (1999)

### reviewed by
Jeremiah McVay

              Director: Luc Besson
              Screenwriters: Luc Besson, Andrew Birkin
              Country: France; Year: 1999
              Rating (4 star system): **1/2

This is the third Besson film I have seen. While I liked The Professional very much, I pretty much loathed The Fifth Element. Besson definitely has something recognizable that runs through his films, but I wouldn't call it auteuristic. I'd call it self-indulgence. It would be easy to say that many great filmmakers are self-indulgent, but I'd be inclined to disagree. Fellini comes to mind. His is a very a personal cinema, but it isn't marked by self-indulgence because, while extremely personal in nature, he still made his films for the audience. He communicated his own personal feelings and view through his style, and when it worked, which seems to have been the usual case, it was quite rewarding. Besson, on the other hand, seems to make his films mostly for himself. It's as if he can't really decipher what an audience will take from any given scene. There just always seem to be things in his films that don't belong there or in any other film. It's as if it makes sense in his head, but nowhere else, perhaps. The best/worst example of this is The Fifth Element. This film just makes very little sense. Nothing fits together and it becomes a series of ludicrous images meant to be some sort of grand tapestry-- ultimately, only mismatched and predictably silly episodes. While The Fifth Element is near-masturbatory, The Messenger merely borders on delusions of grandeur. It endlessly tries to reposition itself to look at Jeanne in some way that should reveal her in a new light, but this only tends to be a hindrance as it becomes increasingly hard for the audience to take on any sort of alliance or alignment. While I think it is a great idea to try and examine Joan of Arc from different perspectives, it just isn't done right here. Usually, the best portraits do not lay judgment on their subjects, but present them as they were or are. This movie could have been Lawrence of Arabia, offering Joan as an enigma and trying to find the hidden motive, but never once alleging to truly know it and leaving the audience to make the final assumption. That's involvement and that's connection for the audience. Any of that in The Messenger really is not due to anything or anyone other than Milla Jovavich playing Joan herself. While the purpose of the writing and direction seems to be lacking, not knowing even whether it should try to judge the subject, but, rather, seeming to make an assumption then pull away haphazardly, unsure of what to do next, Jovavich seems quite sure of herself. She establishes herself in her role and plays the whole thing with great consistency. She constantly seems obsessed and never backs down from that. The power of her performance comes from the way she plays the obsession. Sometimes it merely seems to be a driving force, and other times it seems to be something that could pull her apart. She seems to be the only one who really makes the subject her own, unafraid of offending anyone with the way she portrays her characters, while the rest of the production seems to float somewhere above the decision or inclination to do the same. All this is not to say that the film is horrible. There are indeed some good things within it, such as the wonderfully shot battle sequences. They look amazing and really pull you in, only faltering when they try to focus in on individuals. This is because the only true character in the film is Joan. All supporting characters are more like vague and useless charicatures, mostly ridiculous. So, when the battle scenes begin to focus on these characters, it just seems silly and uselessly orchestrated and calculated. Still, this happens few enough times that the battle scenes are still quite stunning, and, along with the very strong performance of Jovavich, the film becomes much more watchable than it would have been without.

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