Certain texts just seem perennially subject to a film adaptation. Alexandre Dumas’ adventure novel The Three Musketeers, which was first published in 1844, has been adapted to cinema  more than 30 times over the past 120 years. The latest iteration comes courtesy of French filmmaker Martin Bourboulon: split into two parts, the two features  – titled D’Artagnan and Milady – both made their local debut in 2023 before expanding internationally into next year. While I have yet to see the second film, I have had the opportunity to take a look at the first: it is an attractively shot, muscular adventure film, with a rock-solid cast, rich production values, and a charming frisson of authenticity.

Anyone who has previously seen a Three Musketeers film will recognise the story, which follows in broad strokes Dumas’ novel with some re-arranging and streamlining of the original narrative. Young Gascon adventurer D’Artagnan (François Civil) travels to Paris, aiming to join the King’s Musketeers. After meeting the famed “three musketeers” Athos (Vincent Cassel), Porthos (Pio Marmaï), and Aramis (Romain Duris), D’Artagnan is drawn into a conspiracy to disrupt the French monarchy by revealing a tryst between the Queen (Vicky Krieps) and England’s Duke of Buckingham (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd).

The all-star cast adds enormous weight and vitality to Bourboulon’s film. In addition to the likes of Civil, Cassel, and Duris, the pictures boasts the likes of Eva Green (as the villainous “Milady”), Lyna Khoudri (Constance), Louis Garrel (Louis XIII), and Éric Ruf (Richelieu) – not just a member of the prestigious Comédie-Française but its managing director too. There is not a poor performance in the group, and more than a few outstanding ones. It is no surprise to find such charm in Civil’s D’Artagnan, Cassel’s Athos, and Green’s Milady. Lyna Khoudri makes a brilliant impression as Constance too.

The actors all serve at the whims of a lightly inventive but relatively faithful screenplay. The religious strife of Protestants versus Catholics, often lightly avoided, is actively underlined in the script. In a more progressive direction, Porthos is presented non-judgementally as enthusiastically bisexual. These small adjustments, whether for contemporary relevance or historical accuracy, go a long way to reviving an over-adapted text. It is refreshing, in a film titled The Three Musketeers, to see its protagonists engage the enemy with honest-to-goodness muskets for once.

The action is bold and well-shot, and events rattle along at an appropriate pace. It is, of course, only the first half of the story; some viewers are going to bristle at the film’s abrupt and frustrating cliffhanger ending. Markets where the first instalment is already available should get the concluding part by the end of 2023. Other markets I suspect may see both halves consigned direct-to-streaming some time in 2024. However it arrives, this is a well-crafted slice of entertainment that is well worth the wait and the revisit.