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The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan review – one for all fans of roistering and horse-jumping The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan review – one for all fans of roistering and horse-jumping
(about 1 hour later)
After a bromantic meet-cute with three grizzled veteran musketeers, the young fighter and his new gang journey entertainingly through palace intrigue with some excellent stuntsAfter a bromantic meet-cute with three grizzled veteran musketeers, the young fighter and his new gang journey entertainingly through palace intrigue with some excellent stunts
There’s not a lot of roistering going on in the cinema right now, but here’s a film which amusingly roisters its heart out. Despite some updated touches – including an LGBT character-shift and a modern-style assassination attempt – this new version in two parts of Alexandre Dumas’s 1844 classic The Three Musketeers is a distinctly old-fashioned entertainment, and entertainment is never easy. A high-gloss French costume movie, it will have devotees of the Netflix talent-agency sitcom Call My Agent! wondering which of that show’s characters are representing which star; it appears to split its two feature-episodes in roughly the place that Richard Lester and screenwriter George Macdonald Fraser divided their Three and Four Musketeers in the 1970s.There’s not a lot of roistering going on in the cinema right now, but here’s a film which amusingly roisters its heart out. Despite some updated touches – including an LGBT character-shift and a modern-style assassination attempt – this new version in two parts of Alexandre Dumas’s 1844 classic The Three Musketeers is a distinctly old-fashioned entertainment, and entertainment is never easy. A high-gloss French costume movie, it will have devotees of the Netflix talent-agency sitcom Call My Agent! wondering which of that show’s characters are representing which star; it appears to split its two feature-episodes in roughly the place that Richard Lester and screenwriter George Macdonald Fraser divided their Three and Four Musketeers in the 1970s.
Here is part one, and François Civil stars as D’Artagnan, the 17th-century hopeful who journeys up from the provinces to Paris, yearning to be one of the elite King’s Musketeers. Our young swordsman – only that quaint Freudian term will do – bromantically meets-cute with three grizzled veteran musketeers – Athos (Vincent Cassel), Porthos (Pio Marmaï) and Aramis (Romain Duris) – having in his maladroit bumpkin way accidentally jostled or insulted each of them. Their impetuous three-to-one duel is interrupted by the swaggering paramilitary corps loyal to sinister intriguer Cardinal of Richelieu (Eric Ruf), and our four amigos are united by their detestation of these creepy bullies. Here is part one, and François Civil stars as D’Artagnan, the 17th-century hopeful who journeys up from the provinces to Paris, yearning to be one of the elite King’s Musketeers. Our young swordsman – only that quaint Freudian term will do – bromantically meets-cute with three grizzled veteran musketeers – Athos (Vincent Cassel), Porthos (Pio Marmaï) and Aramis (Romain Duris) – having in his maladroit bumpkin way accidentally jostled or insulted each of them. Their impetuous three-to-one duel is interrupted by the swaggering paramilitary corps loyal to sinister intriguer Cardinal Richelieu (Eric Ruf), and our four amigos are united by their detestation of these creepy bullies.
Soon D’Artagnan and the gang are drawn into Richelieu’s plan to entrap the queen (Vicky Krieps) into a fake treason plot with her English admirer, the Duke of Buckingham (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd), so that Richelieu has a pretext to force the king (a glowering Louis Garrel) to attack French Protestants. This movie also imagines a subplot to frame Athos on a phoney murder charge, and it all hinges on the cardinal’s elegant hitwoman, Milady, in which role Eva Green does a lot of hilarious long-stemmed pipe smoking.Soon D’Artagnan and the gang are drawn into Richelieu’s plan to entrap the queen (Vicky Krieps) into a fake treason plot with her English admirer, the Duke of Buckingham (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd), so that Richelieu has a pretext to force the king (a glowering Louis Garrel) to attack French Protestants. This movie also imagines a subplot to frame Athos on a phoney murder charge, and it all hinges on the cardinal’s elegant hitwoman, Milady, in which role Eva Green does a lot of hilarious long-stemmed pipe smoking.
There’s some excellent stunt work on show; it reminded me what a sucker I am for someone jumping on to a horse in a single leap and riding away. There’s also an old-school tavern scene, although this film, directed by Martin Bourboulon, steers it away from the trad hetero-sexist banter. That’s to be expected, although purists will regret the lack of farmyard animals in the fight scenes: flapping, squawking ducks and chickens scurrying out of the way of the duellists. This is a lavishly produced, very enjoyable innocent pleasure.There’s some excellent stunt work on show; it reminded me what a sucker I am for someone jumping on to a horse in a single leap and riding away. There’s also an old-school tavern scene, although this film, directed by Martin Bourboulon, steers it away from the trad hetero-sexist banter. That’s to be expected, although purists will regret the lack of farmyard animals in the fight scenes: flapping, squawking ducks and chickens scurrying out of the way of the duellists. This is a lavishly produced, very enjoyable innocent pleasure.
The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan is released on 21 April in UK and Irish cinemas.The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan is released on 21 April in UK and Irish cinemas.