Count Of Monte Cristo (2002)
Alexandre Dumas was certainly one hell of a writer back in his day: In addition to his Musketeers stories (which have had a million film adaptations since), he also came up with this, certainly his greatest work, an epic tale of betrayal and revenge so rich and ripe with intrigue, that so single film could do it justice (sorry purists), but here has been done right for the first time since a little known 1975 British miniseries and now gets the modern Hollywood treatment by director Kevin Reynolds (long thought of as a journeyman due to his association with Costner, but actually someone with a bit of skill and style). The story is about Edmond Dantes, a common sailor with a dream of making enough money to marry his true love Mercedes, which is envied by his best friend Fernand Montego. After a chance encounter during a voyage with an exiled Napoleon, he finds himself set up and betrayed by Montego and others over a supposedly innocent letter given him by the despotic leader, and winds up imprisoned and declared dead, only to escape many years later with knowledge of an enormous buried treasure, which he finds and uses to plot his revenge. Certainly the cast is first class and bring their best to the table: Jim Caviezel (a good actor who now claims to be blackballed because he played Jesus) brings heart and soul to Dantes that later translates to cunning and torment as he exacts his vengeance while realizing in the process that he could hurt those he cares about; Guy Pierce is a ribald delight as Montego, a morally corrupt cad who nonetheless finds his greatest weakness to be his jealousy of the commoner Dantes despite his own noble heritage; Richard Harris (in one of his last roles) brings some smiles as the wizened old prisoner who instructs Dantes in how to read and write while also helping to plot their escape; James Frain as the corrupt prosecutor who is also a target for Dantes brings the right touch of foppishness while playing a duplicitous bastard; Little known Dagmara Dominczyk hits the right notes as Dantes’ true love who later married Montego after she thought he was dead; Michael Wincott is so deliciously evil and malevolent as the brutal prison warden that the viewer is almost disappointed when he finally gets his; JB Blanc embodies the perfect amount of casual comic relief as the smuggler who befriends Dantes after his escape; and Luis Guzman (A character actor who is so cool they should build a statue of him in Hollywood) as the pirate whose life Dantes spares in a knife fight only to earn his undying loyalty as he assists him in his plans is a lot of fun as well. Only future Superman Henry Cavill as Montego’s son brings a certain level of mugging and squirming to the film that is just a bit too much. The sets, the costumes (especially when it comes to Dantes’ extravagant wealth), the cinematography, and the pacing are all just right. While many fans of the book take issue with the omission of certain important characters and subplots, one must always be aware that a book and a film adaptation will always be two separate things, and a movie should be judged solely on its merits as a piece of entertainment, not whether it is 100% faithful to the original work, and in this case, we’ve gotten a very entertaining and well-made piece that deserves to be discovered by more people without any preconceived notions going in…
9/10