One thing about this movie....the battle scenes are awesome. They are done so effectively that you feel like you are there screaming with the rest of them as you charge against the enemy. Part of this is the Director, Luc Besson's magic of vision, but most of it can be attributed to the explosion of emotion that comes from Mila Jovovich, who plays the lead.
With these two forces it produces a very emotional film that takes us to a place we have seldom seen in popular movie releases in the past few years.
This is the oft told story of Joan of Arc and her life during a very turbulent time and how she led the French to defeating the English when a woman of this time would never have done such a thing.
My only one detraction is some of the structure. Namely the movie races along for 2 hours, then it stops cold. This is when she has been captured and now faces death, and this is where Dustin Hoffman comes in to the act portraying her Conscience. I don't have anything wrong with Hoffman's performance, but it is notable that this is when the the whole movie screeches to a halt and that is what I remember feeling at the time.
Somehow, since Besson uses many instances of flashbacks through her eyes, I would have been happier perhaps, if he had taken some moments to let Hoffman's character infect her soul in more instances throughout the movie. I find it a bit hard to believe that this woman who so struggles with her every being and emotion doesn't have her conscience there constantly making her doubt what is driving her in the first place. Especially since her conscience takes such an active role in the final 30 minutes.
That aside, I haven't felt this much intensity rise to the level it does from a character in a movie the way Jovovich's performance has evoked me. She is so taken in with her character that you find yourself engrossed and going through every feeling she gives off on screen. It's as if you could feel how much her heart was racing, as her eyes bulge out of their sockets when she screams for support from her army. Or even when she sprouts tears from being so burdened with all that she is carrying, they seem to flow with no way for her to stop them. It was something.
If you get a chance, this is well worth a look.
With these two forces it produces a very emotional film that takes us to a place we have seldom seen in popular movie releases in the past few years.
This is the oft told story of Joan of Arc and her life during a very turbulent time and how she led the French to defeating the English when a woman of this time would never have done such a thing.
My only one detraction is some of the structure. Namely the movie races along for 2 hours, then it stops cold. This is when she has been captured and now faces death, and this is where Dustin Hoffman comes in to the act portraying her Conscience. I don't have anything wrong with Hoffman's performance, but it is notable that this is when the the whole movie screeches to a halt and that is what I remember feeling at the time.
Somehow, since Besson uses many instances of flashbacks through her eyes, I would have been happier perhaps, if he had taken some moments to let Hoffman's character infect her soul in more instances throughout the movie. I find it a bit hard to believe that this woman who so struggles with her every being and emotion doesn't have her conscience there constantly making her doubt what is driving her in the first place. Especially since her conscience takes such an active role in the final 30 minutes.
That aside, I haven't felt this much intensity rise to the level it does from a character in a movie the way Jovovich's performance has evoked me. She is so taken in with her character that you find yourself engrossed and going through every feeling she gives off on screen. It's as if you could feel how much her heart was racing, as her eyes bulge out of their sockets when she screams for support from her army. Or even when she sprouts tears from being so burdened with all that she is carrying, they seem to flow with no way for her to stop them. It was something.
If you get a chance, this is well worth a look.