The Messenger is simply stunning and beyond all expectations, with fantastical action sequences of Joan in communication with higher powers. Luc Besson presents us with his stylistic and heretical grand-scale feature that is thoroughly compelling. Like all of Besson’s films, The Messenger is highly stylized, nicely cast, and visually powerful!
A young, illiterate peasant girl convinces the dauphin of France to give her an army, and she leads them to victory in Orleans, only to be burned at the stake for heresy – but Milla Jovovich, in the title role, is a woman possessed. Her influences are less than heavenly; as a child she witnesses the murder of her sister by the English, a death caused by the sister’s giving her hiding place to young Joan, which causes an intense desire for revenge.
