The Count of Monte Cristo Review
by Eugene Novikov (lordeugene_98 AT yahoo DOT com)March 18th, 2002
The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
Reviewed by Eugene Novikov
http://www.ultimate-movie.com/
"What is it you want to buy?"
"Revenge.
Starring Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce, Richard Harris, Luis Guzman. Directed by Kevin Reynolds. Rated PG-13.
It isn't often that I question the purpose of a film being attempted in the first place (except with biopics), but this new version of The Count of Monte Cristo is so emphatically straight-forward and pedestrian that I couldn't escape it. It's not bad -- I've seen far worse Alexander Dumas adaptations -- but it's just flawed enough for us to wonder about its purposelessness. Who thought that this would be some sort of breakout hit, especially with no star power to speak of? Why did we need a fifteenth adaptation of the classic book that brings nothing new to the table?
It's a silly, facetious question, of course; to search for reasons why some Hollywood films are produced is to initiate a spiral into madness. And The Count of Monte Cristo is, at times, quite an enjoyable affair. It stars Jim Caviezel, perhaps the most famous unknown actor in motion picture history, as Edmond Dantes, Dumas' protagonist and later the title character. He is betrayed by his jealous friend Fernand Mondego (Guy Pearce), who gets him arrested and thrown to jail, then marries his fiancee.
Like any good movie vigilante, Dantes swears revenge while rotting in jail, scratching "God Will Give Me Justice" into the bare stone wall. He meets Abbe Faria (Richard Harris), an ex-priest who has spent decades attempting to tunnel out of the hellhole, but has succeeded only in popping up from under the floor tiles of Dantes' cell. In return for Edmond's help in tunneling, Faria offers knowledge; to teach him to read, and to write, and to fence. Before his rather unfortunate death, he gives Dantes a map detailing how to find the enormous treasure of the Sierra Madre; upon retrieving it, he becomes the Count of Monte Cristo and sets out on his quest for vengeance.
Much of the film works; in fact, most of the first two acts is successful at compellingly establishing the story and signifying the passage of time as Dantes rots in jail. It's all utterly unexceptional, but at least it's interesting up until he tunnels out and meets his loyal sidekick played by Luis Guzman (no, I don't know what he's doing here either). After that, the film falls victim to the novel, faced with the daunting task of tying every plot thread before its allotted two hours run out. It gets frenetic, then desperate, before throwing in the towel with the obligatory and obvious, if well-shot, swashbuckling climax.
Like the rest of the country, I am still not sold on Jim Caviezel; if I had to describe him in one word, it would be placid. Pearce makes his villain almost as despicable as he did in Rules of Engagement. But it's really Richard Harris, as the hopeful prisoner who gives Edmond the tools to exact his revenge, who almost runs away with the movie with his poignant portrayal of an educated ex-clergyman wasting away in prison.
The actors are competent, so is the director. The source material is solid, proven stuff. The Count of Monte Cristo should work, but it doesn't. Part of it is the seriously weak third act. The clincher, probably, was the fact that to successfully retell a story that has been told on screen more than a dozen times, there needs to be something distinguishing characteristic so that we can at least tell it from all of the other adaptations. Though enjoyable, the movie is unremarkable in every way. It started fading from memory the second I left the theater.
Grade: C+
Up Next: Birthday Girl
©2002 Eugene Novikov
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