Let me preface my comments for "The Messenger" by stating that I am a Catholic who grew up in the 50s, and my home parish was "St Joan of Arc." Not only that, but when my children were growing up, in a different place, our church was also "St Joan of Arc". So you might say I have a long standing interest in the subject.
Before I saw this one, I saw the other recent one, with Leelee Sobieski in the lead role. Both are wonderful movies, and very different in their approach. I think Milla Jovovich's performance as Joan in this one is truly great. She is, at various times, an innocent peasant trying to follow God's call, and a half-crazed warrior bent of exterminating the British who won't leave her land.
Luc Besson directed "The Messenger" in a more epic style, sometimes going overboard with battle scenes, and "50 ways to kill your enemy." But he also used grand music, great special effects, and one of the best uses of front and rear channel surround sound on the Dolby Digital 5.1 DVD version. There also is a good dollop of low-frequency bass that tests your subwoofer, and rattles your picture frames. Without a modern home-theater sound system, this would be a totally different and inferior movie experience.
One of the "extras" on the DVD is a featurette, narrated primarily my Milla Jovovich, which delves into the "making of" this film. They did extensive research in France, used some of the translations of the original trial transcript, and used 15th century drawings of events in her life to model the costumes and sets. The result is a very realistic portrayal of the historical events in those two years, 1429 through 1431, when Joan was 17 through 19, and lead the French army against the British to save France.
The film makes clever use of a fictional character called "the Conscience", played by Dustin Hoffman. He shows up when Joan is in prison awaiting trial. No one else can see him, he is obviously a vision, that she talks to, and expresses her doubts. Some have said this makes the film an "atheistic" view of Joan. I strongly disagree. To me it brings out more clearly her humanity, her natural doubts about what she really heard from God, and what she may have done on her own. Her asking for "confession" and forgiveness is a natural response for someone who was so strongly grounded in her Catholic faith.
All-in-all, for someone wanting both an entertaining and significant movie experience, "The Messenger" delivers. It is a bit long, almost 3 hours, but it never gets slow or boring. In addition to Jovovich and Hoffman, John Malkovich is good as the Dauphin who becomes king of France, and Faye Dunnaway as his stepmother. I rate this movie a strong "8" of 10.
