The Messenger-Joan of Arc (1999)

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I'm not even joking when I say this movie is at least an hour too long. The run time is 2hrs 40mins. The last hour felt like it was just slightly alternate versions of the same stuff over and over again... Joan gets upset. People don't believe Joan. Somebody supports Joan. Joan sees Dustin Hoffman. Rinse, repeat... the better option would have been delete.

False high hopes for me; generally I like Luc Besson, and nearly always I love Milla Jovovich. And Besson has some interesting bits here, some stuff that is quite like stuff in Lucy, but more arthouse and serious and not as weird or edgy. And Jovovich does some of her hardest, most emotionally intense acting... she's really something to behold.

The premise should be awesome: chick with God in her head leads armies to war. And some of the war bits are pretty good. But there is just so much screamy drama around Joan and does she or doesn't she have God in her head. I wanted to feel inspired but instead I felt... well dubious, not so much about her God-head, the film never quite sold me into that... but more about the point of the movie.

John Malkovich is pretty good in this. Dustin Hoffman is weird.

It just felt like a never-ending saga that rehashed the same ground continuously. I fell asleep and thus missed what I assume was the climax where I assume she gets burned at the stake.

J* gives it 1 star.

PS. I wanted to give it more, but by my own scoring system, falling asleep must put it down at 1 star. It just kept dragging on and my self-defence-snoozing kicked in.

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