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 ho would have guessed that the French knew this much about
revenge? Apparently novelist Alexandre Dumas knew more about vengeance than his
contemporary countrymen, because his novels are ripe with revenge. "The
Count of Monte Cristo" is another one of Dumas' novels that have been made
into movies countless times. The other two are "The 3 Musketeers"
(which, oddly enough, actually features four Musketeers) and "The
Man in the Iron Mask," both of which have been recently remade into big
budget Hollywood films, and will continue to be in the future.
Hollywood loves Dumas almost as much as they love that
Shakespeare guy, so it's no wonder "Count" gets the royal treatment
yet again. The film stars James Caviezel ("Frequency")
as Edmond Dantes, an innocent and naïve young man who is betrayed by his brash
and wealthy friend Count Mondego (Guy Pearce). After he's framed for treason,
Edmond is imprisoned and spends the next 13 years plotting his revenge. In
prison, the illiterate and uneducated Edmond meets Faria (Richard Harris), an
educated soldier turned priest turned prisoner for life. In exchange for helping
him escape, Faria agrees to teach Edmond everything he knows. Finally escaping
from the island prison, Edmond digs up a fortune in gold hidden by Faria and
returns to France as the Count of Monte Cristo, determined to wreck vengeance on
all who betrayed him…
Running well over 2 hours long, "Count" seems
like only one hour. The film is so well written, acted, and directed that I
could have used an extra hour just to iron out some of the plot holes. For
example, after spending 13 years in the island prison, Edmond escapes and is
forced to join a group of pirate smugglers. Cut to 3 months later, and Edmond
has become best friends with the leader of the pirate and is setting off to get
his revenge. I would have liked to see more of Edmond's adventures with the
pirates, where he received even more worldly education. But I suppose after
spending an hour in the prison, director Kevin Reynolds ("Waterworld")
wanted to move on to the movie's draw, the revenge part.
The acting is superb in "Count." Guy Pearce
("Memento") is
so good as the flippantly evil Fernand Mondego that you can't help but like this
guy. Yes, Mondego betrayed his friend for the simple reason that he envies
Edmond's relationship with his girlfriend Mercedes (Dagmara Dominczyk), but
Pearce plays the part so naturally that you have to keep reminding yourself that
you're not supposed to like this guy. Just as Pearce convinces as Mondego, so
too does James Caviezel as Edmond Dantes, young innocent turned somber revenge
seeker. Caviezel's transformation into the Count of Monte Cristo is so well done
that it's easy to see why most people don't remember him. Caviezel has always
turned in a soulful performance, helped by his smothering dark eyes, and along
with Pearce, he's truly one of the best actors to come out of the Hollywood
machine in a long while. Brad Pitt has nothing on these guys.
The rest of the cast includes Dagmara Dominczyk as
Mercedes, who is pretty but not overly beautiful, which doesn't really matter
because Mondego doesn't want her because she's the most gorgeous woman on the
planet, but simply because "a guy like Edmond" has her. Luis Guzman
shows up as Jacopo, a smuggler who becomes Edmond's trusted confidant, and the
intense Michael Wincott ("Alien:
Resurrection") is once again intense as a sadistic warden at the
prison.
Obviously there are large chunks of the novel that are
missing from the film, but that's an unavoidable side effect of trying to
condense a thick novel into a 2-hour film. Screenwriter Jay Wolpert does a fine
job of making the movie coherent and the Count's revenge plot understandable.
His segments in the prison are stellar, and actually dwarf much of the film,
even the Count's revenge.
Action lovers might be a little disappointed because the
film actually only features two lengthy swordfights, and the first one wasn't
much of a "fight" at all. Since the film was so entertaining, I didn't
notice the lack of action at all. There is also a glossing over of French
politics of the time, but no one will care unless they really wanted to
know. Fortunately French politics is as interesting to me as watching paint dry,
so there you have it.
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