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THE MUSKETEER Send This Review to a Friend
Alexandre Dumas's classic novel "The Three Musketeers" has undergone various film reincarnations, so there has to be some artistic reason for yet another effort to drum up new box office interest. Another story interpretation would be one possibility. Providing a vehicle for charismatic new stars would be another. All director Peter Hyams has come up with that's really new is transforming the fight sequences into acrobatics in the vein of the martial arts battles so popular with some fans today. When you see the hero and arch villain fighting to the death while swinging from tall, moving ladders used as a battleground you'll get the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" idea. Hyams even enlisted Hong Kong action expert Xin-Xin Xiong to choreograph the swordplay.
If this is your meat, you may get some thrills, but otherwise there is little that's exciting in this 17th century rehash of heroics and treachery. Justin Chambers is bereft of any special charisma as D'Artagnan, who as a boy sees his father, once a proud Musketeer, slain, along with the lad's mother, and vows to grow up to be a Musketeer under the training of his guardian Planchet (Jean-Pierre Castaldi). Chambers as the adult D'Artagnan goes through the superhero paces amiably enough, but he lacks the roguish charm that might ignite the screen. Likewise, pretty Mena Suvari is rather pallid as Francesca, even though screenwriter Gene Quintano emphasizes lines that give her the contemporary correctness of a damsel who shows independence. Bu there's no charisma there either. In fact the whole love story is on the soppy side.
Acting pluses are earned by Tim Roth as the evil Febre, whom D'Artagnan must dispatch in vengeance for his father, but also--take a deep breath-- for France. Febre is trying to do away with King Louis XIII to boost the fortunes of Cardinal Richelieu, played intelligently but with costume drama somberness by Stephen Rea. Febre is really out for himself, and Roth, so good at portraying villains, does his nasty number well here. The inimitable Catherine Deneuve plays France's Queen, and despite the uninspired screenplay, she infuses some class as she dabbles in a bit of action and intrigue of her own. Any film with Deneuve has to have some saving moments.
The action sequences, and there is plenty of them, remind me of childhood Saturday afternoons at the movies. But the film offers little else. "All for one and one for all" is the revered Musketeer slogan. Unfortunately there's not much "all" for the audience. A Universal Pictures release.
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