Movies about political intrigue can be complicated.  There are plots within plots, and sometimes within plots.  Because of their intricacy, it can be difficult to follow who is doing what and what side they are on, or if you are supposed to be rooting for that person.  I prefer more straightforward stories with a clear protagonist with whom I can support and experience all the highs and lows.  Then there is The Three Musketeers, Part II – Milady (2023).  It is all about different factions within seventeenth century France fighting each other, with the eponymous group of soldiers, plus D’Artagnan (François Civil), there to have actions scenes when necessary.  Actually, the main person causing trouble is the second person in the title, Milady de Winter (Eva Green).  I could follow little of it, which is remarkable when you consider that not only is this an immediate continuation of The Three Musketeers, Part I – D’Artagnan (2023), but it gives you a summary at the beginning.  I wanted to like The Three Musketeers, Part II – Milady a little because the aforementioned factions are along religious lines, giving a Catholic film reviewer sufficient fodder.  While I got some good lines that I will later analyze, the rest was a marathon that I was grateful to be done with when the end credits rolled.

Speaking of rolling, following the recap, The Three Musketeers, Part II – Milady starts with D’Artagnan in a box in the back of a cart being transported somewhere.  He had been unsuccessful in stopping the kidnapping of his beloved Constance Bonacieux (Lyna Khoudri), being captured in the process.  As always happens in films of this kind, as soon as he is able, he overpowers his captors and proceeds to demand of the Count of Chalais (Patrick Mille) to be taken to the other prisoner.  Instead of being Constance, the other person in chains is Milady.  Despite being responsible for a great deal of suffering in the previous movie, he frees her and they escape together.  While on the lam, she tries to seduce him, but he remains true to Constance.  The next morning, the Count’s guards find them, but Milady saves him before riding off without him.  We then cut to Musketeer veteran Athos (Vincent Cassel) visiting his young son.  They talk in front of his mother’s grave, who is Milady though they are unaware she is alive, and Athos promises his offspring that he will return from the war he is going to fight.  With that, he rejoins the French army under King Louis XIII’s (Louis Garrel) brother, Gaston de France (Julien Frison), to besiege the rebel protestants in the port of La Rochelle.  A part of that body of soldiers is Chalais, though a mysterious fellow Musketeer, Hannibal (Ralph Amoussou), stops D’Artagnan from exacting revenge.  I say “mysterious” not because Hannibal is hard to figure out, but because he just appears in the plot without any context other than to prevent D’Artagnan from doing anything rash.  D’Artagnan is not the only one with bold actions on his mind.  Sneaking into the camp is Milady, intent on retrieving a document D’Artagnan has stolen from her and trying once more to get into his pants.  He had already passed the information on to Athos, but she is more successful with the latter part until D’Artagnan spots the mark of a fleur-de-lis branded on her shoulder.  The scar matches with a story told to D’Artagnan by Athos about what had happened to the latter’s wife.  D’Artagnan stops himself from sleeping with his friend’s wife, but before he can bring Athos to the scene, Milady has fled.  There is no chasing after her, though, as the Musketeers have been ordered to storm La Rochelle alongside Chalais’ men.  Upon scaling the walls, Chalais tries to sell them out before the protestants decide they do not want his assistance and shoot him, severely wounding the traitor.  This is when the rest of the French army attacks, and D’Artagnan helps the injured Chalais back to their camp.  However, before D’Artagnan can question the count about Constance’s whereabouts, Chalais is murdered by Gaston.  I guess I should have mentioned that there are a few scenes of King Louis XIII’s brother plotting with the rebels, but they are ephemeral and hard to decipher.  Chalais’ death would be bad for D’Artagnan if not for Athos, Aramis (Romain Duris), and Porthos (Pio Marmaï) overhearing Milady secretly meeting with the conniving Cardinal Richelieu (Eric Ruf), who is playing both sides against each other.  As the Cardinal sends Milady to assassinate the English ally to the protestants, the Duke of Buckingham (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd), Athos finally confronts his wife.  She is about to kill Athos when D’Artagnan and Aramis arrive to stay her hand.  Athos wants them to shoot her, but she claims to know Constance’s whereabouts, and points D’Artagnan to the Cardinal.  In turn, the Cardinal says that Constance is alive, being sent to the Duke of Buckingham by Queen Anne (Vicky Krieps) for safekeeping.  Aramis, Athos, and D’Artagnan depart for England, Porthos being wounded and staying behind, in order to save Constance.  Milady arrives at Buckingham’s, er, palace first, but is recognized by Constance despite the disguise.  Being a spy, Milady is imprisoned by the Duke in order to await execution.  Constance takes pity on Milady, getting permission to visit her in jail.  Milady requests that Constance bring her a knife so that the spy may avoid death at the hands of the English.  Constance believes that would make her an accessory to the mortal sin of suicide.  Instead, Constance allows Milady to dress in her clothes, passing herself as Constance.  This means it is Constance that goes to the gallows instead of Milady.  D’Artagnan and company get there just as she is swinging from the noose, and she later dies in his arms.  An enraged D’Artagnan catches up with Milady and they fight in a burning barn.  A mass of enflamed debris falls on her, and D’Artagnan is saved by Aramis and Athos.  Still, they have retrieved information that implicates Gaston, which they present to King Louis XIII upon their return.  With this, Aramis decides to leave the Musketeers to become a Jesuit, Porthos is to marry Aramis’ sister, and Athos goes home.  Yet, upon getting there, Athos finds Milady’s earring where his son should be sleeping.

I hope I have not caused you to want to sleep while reading that synopsis of The Three Musketeers, Part II – Milady. Incredibly, there are parts of the film that I did not cover, and it mainly pertains to all the plotting I mentioned in the introduction.  A lot of this has to do with the ongoing struggles in France at this time between Catholics and protestants.  For more than a century after the Protestant Reformation began in 1517 with Martin Luther’s objections to certain Church practices, the divide between Christians on these matters became increasingly violent.  The movie is set in the 1620s, but in 1572, French protestants, known as Huguenots, were massacred by French Catholics on what has become known to history as the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre.  This tragedy is not discussed in the movie, which is strange when you consider that it uses real historical events and figures for its backdrop.  You would think a story that focuses so much on the fault lines among Christian sects in France would talk about the most infamous moment in the course of those interactions.  I guess what the makers cared more about was the political intrigue and violence than being faithful to real life.  Yet, because you cannot have two hours of nothing but shooting and sword fighting, they have to have the drama of statecraft.  The aspect that is of most interest to this Catholic are Constance’s actions towards Milady.  Milady is Constance’s enemy.  The spy had overseen Constance’s kidnapping, and had been working against the people about which she cares.  Yet, Constance willingly switches places with Milady.  Granted, Constance does not appear willing to die for Milady, but her initial act is a noble one.  The oft quoted Scripture of John 15:13 when Jesus says that there is no greater love than laying one’s life down for one’s friends is dramatically underscored when we do the same for our enemies.  God has a reward for such actions particularly when they are done with Faith in the heart.  I like to think that is what Constance had.

As it turns out, Constance is the only sympathetic character in two movies, especially in The Three Musketeers, Part II – Milady.  There was a time when I thought D’Artagnan was okay, but then he began to give in to Milady’s advances.  And all this without talking about Aramis supposedly being a Jesuit, or the convent that you can apparently enter and leave on your own whim.  In summary, I am not sure there is much here for anyone.