‘The Three Musketeers: Milady’: Review

Dir: Martin Bourboulon. France. 2023. 115 mins.

At the end of The Three Musketeers — D’Artagnan, the titlular young hero from Gascony (Francois Civil) watched as his beloved sweetheart Constance (Lyna Khoudri) was kidnapped, having inconveniently seen the faces of the traitors who attempted to assassinate King Louis XIII. And Milady de Winter — played with incredibly slinky all-round evilness by Eva Green — fell backwards over a very high cliff. Logic would dictate that the next sound would be “splat.”

While not as frenetic as the first installment, it’s still propulsive entertainment

But Alexandre Dumas was a stupendously inventive and entertaining writer. While not as frenetic as the first installment (released in France on 5 April, it sold 3.3 million tickets in a 22-week run, making it the third best-performing French film of the year) The Three Musketeers — Milady is a still-propulsive adventure that revels in the narratively twisty source material. Opening in France on December 13, it was quickly passed by Wonka.  

Parts I and II were shot simultaneously with two dedicated editing teams. Dumas’ strategic complexity has mostly survived, although Part I was easier to follow.

The action and layered intrigue is set in 1627 when, to put it mildly, Catholics and Protestants were not getting along. Athos (Vincent Cassel), Porthos (Pio Marmai) and Aramis  (Romain Duris) alongside D’Artagnan are quick-witted and know how to wield a sword, which they are duty-bound to do in the service of their King. There is zero dithering. They are men of action and almost always compelling to watch, although this installment devotes more energy to D’Artagnan’s search for Constance than it does to the fraternal antics of brothers-in-arms.

Louis Garrel’s off-kilter portrayal of King Louis XIII in Part 1 was one of that film’s many delights. He’s back with his one-of-a-kind line readings but should have more lines. Perhaps that can be arranged for Part III, which the open ending of Part II implies we’ll be seeing eventually - although re-convening this cast would be a major challenge.

But it’s Eva Green who steals the elaborate show, making villainy seem like the best possible career choice for a beautiful woman, circa the 1620s. This is a juicy role and Green, as a delectably devious cross between Cruella De Vil and Mata Hari makes it even juicer. Milady is, it seems, a spy for Cardinal de Richelieu (Eric Ruf) who, one might reasonably conclude, has it in for the King.  When the King assigns his younger brother Gaston (Julien Frison) to attack the Protestant stronghold of La Rochelle, the fate of France hangs in the balance.

Milady and Athos have some unfinished business. The kind that leads to a fetchingly staged duel in a burning castle. Each time her fate seems sealed, Milady gives the patriarchy a run for its money. In England, the Duke of Buckingham (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) falls for a crafty ruse with genuinely touching results.

This is a story that has been told on screen plentiful times, from the silent movie era stretching to TV, and in multiple languages although mostly French or English. (And let us not forget 2009’s feature cartoon Barbie And The Three Musketeers in which her cat aspires to be a mus-cat-eer.)  

As in Part 1, this entire production is an excellent reminder that France boasts a great many settings that look quite spiffy in period films — almost every day of shooting was on location — and of French technical prowess on a reported combined 72 million euros for the two films.

In what one French critic has dubbed a mini-trend for “Dumaxploitation”, Dumas’ The Count Of Monte Cristo – co-directed by the screenwriters of Milady – has wrapped shooting and is due out late next year, with Pierre Niney in the title role.