The Three Musketeers: Milady (PG13)
115 minutes, opens on Dec 21
4 stars
The story: In a 17th-century France under the dual threat of a religious insurrection and a British invasion, the king’s musketeers – they of the “all for one and one for all” gallantry – are the last bastion against chaos.
A brief recap for those who missed The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan in Singapore cinemas in November: Young, hot-headed D’Artagnan (Francois Civil) had aligned with ageing Athos (Vincent Cassel), foppish Aramis (Romain Duris) and perpetually sloshed Porthos (Pio Marmai) upon arriving in Paris to find a civil war brewing between Catholic royalists and Protestant republicans.
The four musketeers uncover a conspiracy to assassinate King Louis XIII (Louis Garrel).
For fuller historical context, read Alexandre Dumas’ 1844 literary classic.
This blockbuster adaptation by French director Martin Bourboulon is a duology shot back-to-back, with The Three Musketeers: Milady following on immediately from part one as D’Artagnan searches for his abducted amour Constance (Lyna Khoudri).
He forms an uneasy alliance with the eponymous mystery femme fatale. Surely you did not believe a slinky vamp played by Eva Green, last seen leaping off a cliff, would perish for real so early in the story?
Milady de Winter is the central antagonist of the concluding chapter, and the smirking, scheming, bosom a-heaving Green is sensational in a smoking-hot all-star Euro cast.
Every character has a dramatic subplot. Athos is the most tragic, confronting a ghost from his past. Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread, 2017) makes an elegant queen.
A black musketeer (Ralph Amoussou) is another pleasing addition to the dynamic old-fashioned swashbuckler packed full of palace intrigue, romance, thrilling swordplay plus Aramis and Porthos’ comical verbal jousting.
Hot take: There is no dull moment in this galloping mediaeval action-adventure that would be even better were it not English-dubbed.
What Happens Later (NC16)
105 minutes, opens on Dec 21
3 stars
The story: Meg Ryan co-wrote, directed and stars in this comeback vehicle. She and David Duchovny play Willa and Bill, long-ago college sweethearts who reconnect after 25 years while snowed in overnight at an airport.
A lover racing in an airport to reconcile with a partner is a hoary happily-ever-after of Hollywood romantic comedies.
What Happens Later is the post-break-up that begins instead at the departure lounge, where the exes have their awkward run-in. And there they remain the entire night for an unpacking of emotional baggage as they evaluate their complicated history and reopen old wounds amid affectionate bantering.
Why did you leave me?, she finally asks.
How did we go wrong?
There are no answers, only the odd sardonic comment from the terminal’s disembodied intercom.
The late American film-maker Nora Ephron – to whom Ryan dedicates this passion project adapted from Steven Dietz’s 2008 play Shooting Star – would have appreciated the whimsy.
She was the screenwriter behind the romcom gold trifecta – When Harry Met Sally… (1989), Sleepless In Seattle (1993) and You’ve Got Mail (1998) – that established Ryan as America’s Sweetheart, and the actress still endears in her first film since her 2015 directorial debut Ithaca.
Her Willa is a massage therapist, the flighty free spirit to Duchovny’s married stockbroker Bill, who is like a mildly depressed Agent Fox Mulder from The X-Files (1993 to 2018).
The beloved stars, now in their early 60s, are familiar, yet unmistakably older. Their talky two-hander frequently stalls before turning soppy, but the natural interplay between the pair of pros is wonderful in their sharing of Willa and Bill’s disappointments and regrets.
Hot take: This encounter of “When Bill Met Willa” is a wistful post-midlife romcom for mature audiences who understand lost love.
