The Count of Monte Cristo Is the Real Deal

By Teddy Durgin
tedfilm@aol.com

When you see movies days, even weeks, in advance as I do, you never quite know what a particular film will do once it finally reaches theaters. Will it be a hit? Will the lead actor emerge as a star? Will it cause a stir among the general public? The Count of Monte Cristo is one such movie that has proven to be quite baffling to me since seeing it a week ago.

On the one hand, it has no big-name actors or actresses, no world-class action director, and it's hitting cinemas during one of those "graveyard" times of the year--i.e. late January. And, no, it wasn't one of those movies that was released in New York and Los Angeles in late December to be eligible for Oscar consideration (i.e. Black Hawk Down) only to get wide release a few weeks later. This a bona fide 2002 release.

On the other hand, The Count of Monte Cristo is very well cast. Its director, Kevin Reynolds, knows how to stage swordfights, fisticuffs, and other big moments. And, who knows? It may just be hitting theaters at the perfect time. I hope so, because I really had a good time with this movie. Reynolds has crafted a spirited adventure tale based on the classic Alexandre Dumas story of a good man wrongly and deliberately imprisoned in 19th-century France. That man, Edmond Dantes, is played by the fantastic Jim Caviezel, who deserves to become a major star on the strength of his performance here. Caviezel IS the reason to see this film! The transformation he undergoes from a simple and honest young sailor to a vengeful and ruthless pirate who becomes wealthy and sets forth to destroy his enemies is vividly realized.

The Count of Monte Cristo is set at a time when Napoleon has been exiled and greedy, small men see their chance to rise to power. The main villain of the piece is Fernand Mondego (Guy Pearce of Memento), Edmond's boyhood friend and rival for the affections of the ravishing Mercedes (played by Polish beauty Dagmara Dominczyk, who now walks my dreams dag nab it!) When Edmond is caught with a letter from Napoleon himself, Mondego conspires with a fellow sailor (Albie Woodington) and the local chief magistrate (James Frain) to put Dantes in the Chateau D'If, where he will be brutalized, starved, and forgotten about.

In prison, though, Edmond meets another wrongfully accused man, the Abbe Faria, who changes his life. Richard Harris has the showiest role in the film as the priest who teaches Edmond how to read and write and do complex math. He also teaches him how to fight, both with weapons and with his mind. The two spend years digging their way out of this French Shawshank. When the priest comes to trust the young man, he shares with him his secret.

He knows where a gold fortune is hidden.

The Count of Monte Cristo is one of those movies where if you get into the spirit of the piece and don't get bogged down by too many logic questions, you're gonna have a good time! Yes, Dantes is put in jail for 13 years and emerges with better hair and a better physique than when he went in. In movies, prisons are ALWAYS the best places to go to lose weight, grow your hair out, and build up your arms and chest. Yes, the fact that only Mercedes actually recognizes Edmond when he comes back is a little unbelievable. But, come on, the guy did grow a goatee and start to use cream rinse and a blow dryer in the years since his arrest. Cut him some slack! And, yes, I am sure that the French will once again be pissed off that all of the major French parts in the film are played by British actors who don't even attempt accents. To that I say: "Hey, it worked for Jean-Luc Picard. It works here. Now let us use your air space!"

Ahem. I digress.

Honestly, if you liked movies like Gladiator, The Shawshank Redemption, and The Man in the Iron Mask, you will like this movie. I applaud Touchstone Pictures' for allowing Reynolds to cast the right actors for the parts, regardless of box office clout (although I boo the marketing heads for making Caviezel look like Antonio Banderas in the poster). Jim Caviezel was wonderful in The Thin Red Line and as Dennis Quaid's son in Frequency, but he is hardly a major star. Similarly, Guy Pearce is respected on the film-nerd circuit for his roles in Memento and L.A. Confidential. But, again, chances are most people will not know the name.

Hopefully, this movie will help change that. Caviezel becomes a leading man in the last third of this film, and he may have the most stunning blue eyes on screen since Paul Newman. Pearce, meanwhile, takes the one-note villain's role and turns him into a study of weakness and envy that is equal parts Iago and Archibald Cunningham. Screenwriter Jay Wolpert takes a risk in making Edmond and Mondego childhood friends (in the original novel, they were barely acquaintances). But the change is a good one, as it heightens the drama and makes Fernand's betrayal that much more stinging.

I do wish the movie had been stronger in its first act, as Reynolds relies a bit too much on stunning landscapes (the movie was filmed largely in Ireland and Malta) and on the accomplished production design by Mark Geraghty at the expense of some character development. But when Edmond hooks up with the priest in the jail, the movie starts to come into focus and I started to become emotionally attached to the character. I wanted to see Edmond escape. I wanted to see him right the wrong that had been done to him, but not at the expense of his soul.

The Count of Monte Cristo is very much in the same spirit as Dumas' other works. It is leagues better than last year's The Musketeer (which was a Dumbass version of a classic Dumas novel). Who knows if it will catch on with action and romance fans and become a blockbuster? Who knows if Jim Caviezel will become a big star as a result? I only know what I saw, and what I saw was a darn good movie!

The Count of Monte Cristo is rated PG-13 for adventure violence, swordplay, scenes where Edmond is whipped and brutalized in prison, and some mild sensuality.