Rated PG-13 - Running Time: 2:11 - Released 1/25/02
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO
Rated PG-13 - Running Time: 2:11 - Released 1/25/02
The Count Of Monte Cristo is one of those classic works
of literature that has been done and done again, to the point
that producers usually start adapting it in weird ways, like setting
it in the Bronx in the 1950s or something. A recent example of
this is Peter Hyams's September release The
Musketeer, a Matrix/Hong
Kong-flavored adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's other classic
tale, whose lackluster performance at the box office, to be fair,
can probably be attributed in part to the fact that it was released
just 4 days before September 11. But it also just wasn't a very
good movie.
At any rate, director Kevin Reynolds and the producers of this
version, which stars James Caviezel, Guy Pearce, and elder statesman
Richard Harris (still visible in theaters as Harry
Potter's Professor Dumbledore), resisted the temptation
to tinker with the author's vision, and what results is a straightforward
and beautifully accoutered period piece, rife with technical authenticity
and eye-pleasing production values. The screenplay, adapted from
the original 1845 novel by TV game show producer Jay Wolpert,
is unfortunately simplistic, however, with major events covered
at breakneck speeds to push us through the whole story in just
over 2 hours. An epic saga like this deserves a mini-series (like
Josée Dayan's 1998 French TV version), but Wolpert's radical
abbreviation of events is presumably the result of a choice not
to leave anything out, which would be difficult and probably not
very well received.
Caviezel plays Edmund Dantes, a poor, illiterate seaman with
fabulous good looks and tons of heart, who is about to be married
to his true love, Mercedes (Dagmara Dominczyk), in 1814 France.
His luck at netting such a fabulous babe has raised the ire of
his jealous friend, Fernand Mondego (Pearce), the son of a count
who wants Mercedes for himself. Conspiring with a shady lawyer
named Villefort (James Frain), Ferdinand has Edmund fasely accused
of treason and sent away to a forbidding, Alcatraz-style island
prison. At first confident that God will deliver him from the
hell he has been cast into, Edmund spends several years enjoying
regular beatings from the cruel warden (Michael Wincott), and
finally loses hope, renouncing God and attempting to kill himself.
Meanwhile on the outside, the despondent Mercedes, thinking that
Edmund has been executed, grudgingly marries Ferdinand and becomes
an unhappy countess.
But then Edmund meets another prisoner, an elderly priest (Harris)
who is bent on escape. The two form a friendship, and during the
next several years they work together in tunneling their way out
while the old man teaches Edmund everything from the three R's
to swordplay, not to mention the location of a fabulous treasure
hidden on the island of Monte Cristo. When Edmund finally escapes,
he meets and saves the life of a friendly pirate (Luis Guzmán),
and the two discover the treasure. Using his newfound and unlimited
wealth, he becomes the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo, and begins
an elaborate plot to exact revenge against his enemies.
Besides the oversimplification of plot (and the dialogue, which suffers from a sort of dumbed-down quality and contains some blatant anachronisms), there are other discrepancies, like the complete absence of aging among characters in a 16-year story line. But thank goodness for Richard Harris. While the acting by Caviezel, Pearce, and Guzman is merely adequate, Harris, despite limited screen time, elevates this film's quality to a level better than merely the sum of its parts. ****