Tall, dark and handsome … and naïve.
Alexandre’ Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo” has come to life in a Kevin Reynolds version of the classic novel with the film taking on the character of Edmond Dantes and transforming him into what Dumas wanted him to be.
Dantes, played by Jim Caviezel, is wrongly imprisoned and sent to the infamous Chateau D’If, a dark, dank place used to hide away innocent prisoners.
Complete with yearly lashings to commemorate the prisoners’ anniversaries, the Chateau D’If is ironically where Dantes transforms himself from a caring, yet foolish, lover into a vengeful man.
Dantes spends 13 years of his life in the Chateau D’If, many of which are spent contemplating suicide, a mission that proves unsuccessful after Dantes is reminded of his own faith.
Though many of his years are in solitude, Dantes befriends another prisoner, a priest played by Richard Harris, who gives Dantes an education in exchange for his digging capabilities.
The two men dig from well beneath the surface of the earth to what appears to be a buried layer of topsoil only to have their escape further delayed by tragedy.
But this does not stop Dantes, who makes an unbelievable escape and transforms himself into the Count of Monte Cristo and avenges all who have betrayed him.
When it was once his own naivete and trusting ways that betrayed him the most, The Count lets nothing hinder his revenge and carries it through without complication.
As in all good movies, “The Count of Monte Cristo” ends with a moral lesson that is somewhat lacking in both innocence and sincerity.
Dantes decides to let God handle his vengeance and use his wealth and power to help others, but only after he has destroyed his enemies.
While a dynamic cast supports Dantes, featuring Guy Pearce as Fernand, Dagmara Dominicyzk as Mercedes and Luis Guzman as Jacopo, it is the rich cinematography that brings the film to life.
With the film mostly taking place in dark settings, drab colors come to life through Reynolds’s use of exquisite palaces, landscapes and costumes.
From the war ships to the Countesses earrings, designers took special care when costuming both the cast and the sets.
The film is highly entertaining and extraordinarily revisits a century youth today could never even imagine, but “The Count of Monte Cristo” has its flaws.
Weak writing takes away from the script.
The movie is a drama, but several pertinent lines in the movie are followed by unneeded dialogue that seems to be written in for comic relief.
The writers should have stopped while they were ahead; the jokes and laugh lines are just not funny.
Despite the error in judgment of where to draw the line in the script, “The Count of Monte Cristo” is a wonderful adaptation of the novel.
Closely following the original path that Dumas took to evolve his characters, Reynolds has directed a film that any required reading list or fan of classical literature can appreciate.
Whitney Pierce