The Count of Monte Cristo

Rating:
Summary: Count on this movie to excite and thrill
Review: The timeless tale of Count of Monte Cristo has been adapted many a times - to impending doom with The Musketeers (2001) and the embarrassing The Man In the Iron Mask (2000). The latest from director Kevin Reynolds (Waterworld) with screen writer Jay Wolpert surprisingly breaks free of the curse to retell the yarn of intricate revenge and honor in a swashbucklingly robust and glorious poise.

The plot is of substance itself. Jim Caviezel plays Edmund Dantes who on a shipping trip with buddy Mondego (Guy Pearce), chance upon Napolean who is exiled in Elba. He is entrusted by Bonaparte to deliver a message to chief prosecutor Villeford's father unknowingly. The content turns out to be treasonous, and to avoid a public scandal - Villeford conspires with Mondego to silence Dantes by sentencing him to imprisonment in Chateau d' His sweetheart Mercedes is conned into marriage, Edmund's father hanged himself - the betrayal of his friend Mondego is seething.
His urge for revenge grows with the afflictions - being flayed and usurped of his freedom in the jail. He befriends Faria (Richard Harris), a jailmate who possesses a treasure map at the island of Monte Cristo and educates him in swordplay and general studies.

A turn of events with the death of Faria manifests a chance for him to escape and with the treasure map, he gains status and riches as the elusive Count of Monte Cristo and plots silently his revenge....

Faithful followers of Alexandra Duma's classic will lament the tale transformation diluted to pure entertainment. Yet in its solid 2 hours, director Kevin Reynolds fills the screen with gorgeous vistas and galvanizing action to render it a thrill. The actors are in their element with Jim Caviezel's consummate performance as a vengeful spirit; Guy Pearce as the disillusioned and jealous Mondego and Dagmara Dominicyzk as the embittered Mercedes. Its lightweight adaptation though pleasing to the eyes marks also its weakness to explore the characters in depth and give it full-fledged emotions. However there isn't much to complain when the story is interesting enough to grip the audience's attention. You can count on this movie to excite and bask in its merits.

Rating:
Summary: Count on revenge, and then some.
Review: After attending the release of "The Count of Monte Cristo," a friend made the remark that he believed the movie could benefit from additional fight sequences. Immediately my mind shot back to last year's "The Musketeer," also based (rather loosely, I might add) on another of Alexandre Dumas' famous classics. In that film, character development, story, and tone were sacrificed for the sake of creating yet another movie in which a choreographer of Chinese descent was allowed to make an impression on action aficionados by dazzling them with techniques reminiscent of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

What a relief that this latest adaptation of a Dumas novel strays from the usual clichés and redundancy of bringing a classic work of literature to the screen, coming out as a sturdy, well-guided costume drama that combines action, intensity, passion, and most importantly, revenge. With a script that keeps much of the novel's intricacies intact, a cast befitting of their roles, and a director who keeps things interesting at all times, this is one swashbuckling adventure that pleases in all fields.

The story centers around Edmund Dantes (Jim Caviezel), a sailor from a middle class upbringing in the town of Marseilles. He has a friend, Fernand Mondego (Guy Pearce), whose father is a wealthy aristocrat; despite his rich lifestyle, Mondego still harbors a slight jealousy for Dantes, who has just been promoted to captain of his vessel, allowing him the opportunity to marry his longtime love, Mercedes (Dagmara Dominczyk). Overcome by envy, Mondego concocts a vicious plan with the equally jealous first mate of Dantes' boat that lands a wrongfully accused Dantes in the Chateau d'If for more than a decade.

During his years of imprisonment, Dantes' resolve is strengthened by brutal beatings, and by his friendship with fellow prisoner Faria (Richard Harris), who teaches Dantes to read and write, the articulate moves of swordplay, and offers him the location of a long-lost treasure that would give him the means to exact his revenge on those who have wronged him. Faria's death provides Dantes the method of escape he needs, and once out, he begins his quest.

The second half of the movie takes the movie to new heights of interest, as Dantes makes his big entrance in Paris as the Count of Monte Cristo, bent on exacting his revenge on Mondego, now married to a repressed, sullen Mercedes, and on Villefort, the police chief who played a role in his wrongful incarceration. Anyone familiar with revenge plots is well aware that this is a dish best served cold, and many will delight in the cooly calculated revelations and confrontations that arise as Dantes's master plan begins to unfold.

Accompanying this feeling of satisfaction is the movie's wondrous appearance and execution. The look and feel of the film drips with the quality of the swashbuckling adventures of yesteryear, with its themes of vengeance and nobility, it's glorious costumes and set design, and a final showdown that provides a slam-bang finish complete with suspense and fist-clenching thrills. Reynolds, and screenwriter Jay Wolpert, have realized the novel for the screen in a manner that is pleasing to the eye and the mind, keeping in touch with everything that has immortalized Dumas' work without reworking key moments to make room for modern artistic influences.

If this weren't enough to please popcorn audiences and literary buffs, the cast is completely remarkable. Jim Caviezel plays Dantes with the conviction of a man wrongfully accused; by the time he escapes prison, we are all for him and his brilliantly conceived plan. His chemistry with leading lady Dagmara Dominczyk is a welcome slice of old-fashioned romance, while his scenes with Guy Pearce provide a nice contrast of nobility and jealousy, which Pearce perfects in his performance as Mondego. Also worthy of noting are the appearances of Richard Harris and Lius Guzman, who provide humorous touches throughout.

More than anything else, this latest big-screen version of "The Count of Monte Cristo" is a wonderful popcorn adventure replete with everything you could possibly ask for in a film of this sort. Overall, it remains faithful enough to its source, and keeps us enlightened and entertained throughout its well-acted, well-directed, well-executed duration. Count on revenge, and then some.

Rating:
Summary: Changed the whole tone of the thing by changing the end
Review: I agree that it may be necessary to change parts of a story to make the 2 hour limit common to most movies. I think that the ending (without giving it away, if you care) goes counter to the vengence theme Mr. Dumas was weaving. So as to who the Count winds up with may be an issue of what is acceptable to the movie industry racially, and it may just be a simpleminded simplification. If you've never read the book, read it. It is melodramatic. The ending in it makes more sense than the end of this movie.
As an aside, I think that Mel Gibson must have seen this movie and settled on Mr. Caviezel as the lead after seeing his portrayal of the imprisoned Edmond Dantes. He is whipped 3 times in the movie and is made up to look astonishingly like the Jesus he portrayed in Gibson's movie. Looks like he is being type cast.

Rating:
Summary: Actionpacked Dumas...
Review: A young naive man, Edmond Dantes (James Caviezel), and his friend Fernand Mondego (Guy Pearce) survive a landing on the island where Napoleon Bonaparte has been imprisoned. On the return to Marseilles, his friend Mondego turns him in to the police for treason as he has a letter from Napoleon. Mondego does this in order to gain the love of Dantes fiancé Mercedes (Dagmara Dominczyk). Dantes is thrown into the island prison of Chateau D'lf to rot and be forgotten, as his family is told that he has been executed for treason. During the imprisonment he meets Abbé Faria (Richard Harris), another prisoner, who is attempting an escape out of Chateau D'lf. They become friends and Faria begins to educate Dantes in many different areas. When Dantes escapes after 13 years of captivity he finds the knowledge that Faria taught him to be very useful and he begins to plot an idea for his revenge on Mondego. Count of Monte Cristo is a swashbuckling adventure adapted after Alexandre Dumas novel with the same name that focuses on adventure instead of the moral of the story. In the end, the film proves itself to be an entertaining episode with little nourishment for the mind.

Rating:
Summary: KINGS TO YOU!
Review: Much has been said about this movie and its departures from the book. Hey, when was the last time that Hollywood followed the book verbatim with any film? Virtually ever film out there, of necessity, takes license with the original literary story. So, let's agree not to get too hung up on that.

Despite departures from the story, The Count of Monte Cristo is a marvelous movie. Starring James Caviezel (Frequency) as the ill-fated Edmond Dantes who becomes the Count of Monte Cristo and Guy Pearce (The Time Machine) as the conniving Fernand Mondego, Count of Morcerf, former and treacherous friend of Dantes. The interaction between these two is classically choreographed.

One of the most wonderful characters in the movie is Richard Harris as Abbé Faria, Edmond's Chateau d'If mentor and benefactor. Harris absolutely shines in this role and the movie is worth watching for Harris' contribution alone.

James Frain (Shadowlands) as J.F. Villefort, Chief Magistrate and the lovely Dagmara Dominczyk as Mercedès Iguanada round out the cast. The setting and cinematography are breathtaking making this a must see whether you are a fan of the book or not. Kings to you!

Rating:
Summary: A disappointment for book fans
Review: If you read and loved the book, then most likely this movie isn't for you. The only similarities between the two being Dantes imprisonment and escape. I have yet to see a movie version of the Count of Monte Cristo that gets the story right, the closest being the 1975 Richard Chamberlain version, but even that one had it's flaws. A summery of this movie would be Edmond Dantes' life is ruined by his greedy friend, but after tweleve years in prison, Dantes comes back, gets his vengence, and Mercedes and his life goes back to how it was twelve years ago. The book is so much deeper, and this unrealistic fairy tale ending makes the whole movie feel flat.

Rating:
Summary: Bittersweet
Review: I read The Count of Monte Cristo as a teenager as well as everything else Duma Pere wrote, and ,even though the movie does differ in ways from the book- I have no problem with this. This gorgeously rendered movie tells the story of a very young Edmond Dantes ( a French sailor , second mate) and his betrayal by his " good friend " ( the young nobleman Mondego) and others. The movie is well paced , wonderfully acted, and the settings are haunting. Dagmara Dominczyc and James Caviezel make a beautiful "screen" couple with their gorgeous dark good looks, and I do wish their love story has been more drawn out ( selfish of me I know, but I didn't want it to end). Caviezel morphs easily into the enigmatic Count ( with the help of a limitedless fortune and the Abbe Farrias ( played by the great Richard Harris) prison tutoring)and is at his swashbuckling best. Thank God not too much sword play though - just enough to make it interesting. The embittered , but not totally hardened, Count exacts his revenge ( aided by his ever faithful servant- friend, Jacopo ( excellently played by Luis Guzman)but learns in the end that vengeance really is best left to God.The bad guys deserved what they got though and it was fun seeing them get it! Edmond begins to see the light when his beloved Mercedes (and the son he didn't know he had). are almost killed because of him.All comes right in the end. What a wonderful adaptation and a " feel good" movie to boot. And in these terrible days - what wrong with that!This movie should have garnered some awards ...definitely.

Rating:
Summary: James C. and the Count
Review: An excellent movie. Exceptional performances by entire cast especially Caviezel and Richard Harris. Intriging and moving. Have watched it several times.

Rating:
Summary: "you must look into that storm"
Review: Based on the Dumas story, this fabulous adventure about a naive, illiterate young man in 19th century France whose fate embroils him in treachery and vengeance, is well written with wit and intelligence, and abridges a complex plot into a cohesive 131 minute film.
The location cinematography in Malta and Ireland is spectacular, though my one and only complaint about this film is that occasionally some of the indoor sequences tend to be a little murky.
The soundtrack by Edward Shearmur is also top-notch, and adds a lot to the film.

The cast:
Jim Caviezel brilliantly captures the essence of the Dantes/Count character; believable both as the innocent Edmund and the worldly Count of Monte Cristo, with his swashbuckling prowess and elegant style.
Richard Harris as the priest who mentor Dantes is marvelous; wily and wise, it's a perfect part for Harris, and he makes the most of it.
Other standout performances come from Guy Peerce as Fernand, Michael Wincott as Armand Dorelac, the Warden of d'If, and most of all, Luis Guzman as a very funny Jacopo.

This is terrific family viewing, free of the plague of foul language and heavy breathing between the sheets that have made films so tiresome in recent years. This film will feed your brain, delight your eyes, and raise your heartbeat a little with its fast-paced exploits about "kings and pawns, emperors and fools".

Rating:
Summary: intriguing classic tale of betrayal, injustice, and revenge
Review: A man named Dantes is about to be married to the woman he loves. Only one problem: his best friend loves her too. Solution? Evil best friend gets Dantes put away in a prison fortress for a long time off on some remote and desolate island. A Verrrry long indefinate sentence. Dantes miraculously eventually escapes after 13 years to find--yup, you guessed it--his beloved is married to best friend. Understandably, Dantes is enraged and is out for blood. This is a classic and intricately plotted tale, brilliantly re-created in this film. The sword fight sequence near the end is so spectacular and realistic too!

David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"