THE THREE MUSKETEERS: PART I – D'ARTAGNAN

The Three Musketeers: Part I – D'Artagnan, Samuel Goldwyn Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | December 7, 2023

As the title suggests, the ending of The Three Musketeers: Part I – D'Artagnan promises that the film's tale is "to be continued." This reconfigured but accurate-in-spirit adaptation of about half of Alexandre Dumas' oft-adapted novel certainly makes one anticipate what director Martin Bourboulon has in store for the next, concluding part, because this first one does a lot of things different and right.

For one thing, Bourboulon finds just the correct tone for this mix of swashbuckling action, comedy, and palace intrigue. That might seem like an easy task, until one considers how regularly filmmakers miss the point when it comes to period adventure movies such as this one. Think of a version of this with a nonstop slew of jokes, a self-serious tone that ignores Dumas' satirical intentions between the lines of his plot, or, worst of all perhaps, an overreliance on visual effects that transforms our heroes from ordinary, flawed men into the equivalent of pre-Revolutionary superheroes.

We've seen such approaches before, both in terms of adaptations of this source material and of period action-adventure tales in general. It's refreshing to see this one take itself seriously—but not too seriously—and to come up with setpieces—featuring actual actors and stunt performers—that mean something to the story, instead of just filling time between the beats of the plot.

That plot is slightly different, in some significant ways, in Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière's screenplay, but the changes fit and don't alter the basic course of the tale too much. Take our introduction to the upstart protagonist Charles d'Artagnan (a quickly charming François Civil), who has come from his home province of Gascony to seek what he believes to be his destiny of becoming a member of the King's Musketeers. Before he can reach Paris, he springs into action, as a noble woman is attacked by anonymous thugs, and after all the hard work, he's shot, presumed dead, and buried alive in an unmarked grave.

In addition to throwing us right into some action, all of that sets up an underlying conspiracy happening right under the king's nose, because the attackers are led by the mysterious and seductive Milady (Eva Green, who fits those descriptors to a T), who, in turn, is an agent of the secretly malevolent Cardinal Richelieu (Eric Ruf). By the way, a text prologue explains everything we probably remember about the villainous scheme of this tale at the start, which means the filmmakers don't have to waste too much time establishing exposition or background and can just leap right into the more important stuff.

That, of course, is watching D'Artgnan become noticed by the Musketeers' captain (played by Marc Barbé), immediately fall for the queen's servant and landlady Constance (Lyna Khoudri), and allow his arrogance to get him into scheduling three separate duels within an equal amount of hours. Unbeknownst to him until all three men show up at the same appointment, D'Artagnan has agreed to duel each of the famed Three Musketeers: Athos (Vincent Cassel), Aramis (Romain Duris), and Porthos (Pio Marmaï). Instead, they end up in a massive fight with a couple dozen of the Cardinal's guard, in a one-take bit of action in the woods that cares as much about real swordplay and choreography as the camera trickery.

Of course, there's more action here, including a similarly edit-less ambush in an abbey and a climactic showdown with the frightening touch of a sniper in a packed cathedral, but the director and screenwriters know none of that matters without characters and a story to support it. There's a string of fine examples of the former, from smaller roles—like the resentfully passive King Louis XIII (Louis Garrel), who's too preoccupied with self-doubt to notice threats within his castle and his country, and his queen Anne (Vicky Krieps), whose love for an English duke gives this first installment its own self-contained plot—to the more significant ones.

Most important of all, the main Musketeers are cast perfectly enough that we hope there'll be a bit more of them specifically and individually in the follow-up. Cassel is haunted and world-weary as Athos, whose character has a dark secret about the severity of his ethical code and—in the biggest change to the novel—finds himself framed for murder. Duris provides a sly, natural charisma as the womanizing Aramis, who prays in the morning for the sins he committed the night before—and might still be lying in bed. Marmaï's Porthos gives some subtle comic relief, with the character's own sexual exploits now not discriminating on the basis of gender.

It all works more or less, although there is still a lot happening in the background that deflects from what these characters could possibly reveal. It doesn't quite matter, though, when the performances are so solid and the vast conspiracy is so tantalizing. That has to do with a civil war brewing in France between Catholics and Protestants, Milady's cunning maneuvers to infiltrate any high position in society in both France and England, and the wicked cardinal's scheming to prove the rumors of the queen's extramarital dalliance by way of a missing necklace.

That it feels authentic, both to the book and the look of the period (Cinematographer Nicolas Bolduc uses natural light almost exclusively, and there's dirt and grime on everything that isn't royal or noble), offers a nice sense of nostalgia in an age of movies that so routinely fall back on joking self-awareness and require everything to look glossy. The Three Musketeers: Part I – D'Artagnan recalls a different, older type of filmmaking, and it's fun and exciting, too.

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