Director: Kevin Reynolds
Format: DVD
DVD Features: deleted scenes, audio commentary, featurettes
Starring: James Caviezel, Guy Pearce, Richard Harris, Dagmara Dominczyk
Trailer
I like getting movie recommendations from friends. I rarely watch movies with friends, so it’s really nice to have that experience as well. What’s triply nice is when I get to sit and watch with a friend and they don’t insist on talking through the whole thing or trying to make out with me. Granted, there are certain movies that just beg to be made out to, like Crash with David Spader, for instance. And if I’ve seen the movie a bazillion times, like The Princess Bride, it’s okay to talk through it. But, when I see movies, I generally want everyone to shut the hell up and let me watch. The Count of Monte Cristo was a film I got to see with a friend, a quiet one.
Edmond Dantes (James Caviezel) is a young man who’s making his way in the world. He’s got a beautiful fiancé and has just gotten a promotion. Fernand (Guy Pearce) is a friend of Edmond’s, noble born and exceedingly jealous. Edmond is happy-go-lucky until he is shipped off to prison on the island of Chateau d’lf , framed for treason. He’s held captive there for 13 years (which reminded me of a Korean movie called Oldboy). Fortunately for him, Edmond meets up with another captive, Abbe Faria (Richard Harris), who trains him in the arts of combat, teaches him to read, and enlists his aid in digging a tunnel out of captivity. And eventually, after so many long years, Dantes finds a way out of Chateau d’lf and into a large fortune. Bent on revenge, Edmond Dantes takes on his new persona, The Count of Monte Cristo, and quickly infiltrates the social circles in which Fernand travels. Not even Mercedes (Dagmara Dominczyk), Edmond’s former love is safe from the vengeful wrath of The Count.
It took me a moment to realize where I’d seen Guy Pearce before. I recognized the face, but just couldn’t remember a plot or character to connect him to. That’s when my friend reminded me – Momento. Momento was a terrific film and so, I was expecting a similarly stellar performance from Pearce in this movie. Sadly, it didn’t get what I was hoping for. In fact, most of the cast did a mediocre rendition of the characters in this classic tale. I certainly wasn’t impressed by Pearce, Caviezel, Faria or anyone else.
Although it wasn’t a horribly trashy film, The Count of Monte Cristo was dulled beneath a thick glaze of Hollywood treatment. There wasn’t anything particularly edgy or revolutionary in this take of the story. The segment of the film in which Dantes meets Faria and builds himself up to the task of seeking revenge would be familiar to any fan of classic kung-fu films. I was reminded of countless subtitled features wherein the lead character suffers great losses, meets an old master, undergoes training and comes out better and stronger than before. There is a fairly entertaining fight at the end, when The Count takes on his enemies and there is hardly a moment when it doesn’t seem that Dantes’ revenge isn’t deserved. I just imagine that the same story could have been much more exciting considering all of the elements present which could have been developed richly had someone else been directing it and/or another cast acting in it. The basic story was full of potential, but (and no offense to my friend) it was lacking anything special.
Overall Rating: 2
Hottie Rating: 0
Alternate Viewing: A Knight’s Tale
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