“The best revenge is massive success.”
-- Frank Sinatra
-- Frank Sinatra
The Count of Monte Cristo is a notoriously difficult book to translate to film. Originally a serialized work, this means it is massive in size, and has to be pared down fairly drastically for any film to work. The 2002 film does this marvelously, pruning the characters introduced, and changing the relationships, events and even the ending, and yet still feels true to the novel. My glowing review of the movie aside, I can't stress enough that the book is a fantastic read on its own and different enough from the movie to still be entertaining. For this reason, I won't be pointing out the differences from movie to book, to preserve any surprise the book could still provide. Also for this reason, I will attempt to review the movie purely on its own merits, and try not to give it credit for things explained more fully in the book.
Jim Caviezel plays Edmond Dantès in what has to be considered the mother of all revenge stories. Wrongfully imprisoned out of petty jealousy and crooked government officials, Dantès spends 14 years in the Château d'If, a prison on a secluded island where France can, as the jailer Dorleac puts it, "put the ones they're ashamed of." He spends his time there losing his faith in God, but eventually befriending a priest who teaches him all the things his commoner's upbringing didn't expose him to: reading, writing, swordplay, mathematics, economics, etc. He eventually escapes, discovers a vast fortune and begins plotting his revenge against those who've wronged him.
Caviezel does a capable job playing the naive sailor the movie will mold into its protagonist but really shines once he dons the mantle of the Count of Monte Cristo. Guy Pearce is perfectly cast as Edmond's false friend, playing the role as pompous smugness incarnate. He delivers the best line of the film when asked if one of his rivals is dead by replying, "Well, unless his heart is situated somewhere other than the left side of his chest, I suspect he is." If the movie has a weakness, it is in the casting of the other roles. Richard Harris, best known to younger audiences as either Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator, or Dumbledore in the first few Harry Potter movies, plays the priest, Abbé Faria. While his over-the-top, breathy portrayal or Dagmara Dominczyk's of Mercedès has to be considered the worst in the movie, they both do passable enough jobs for the movie to overcome them.
The Count of Monte Cristo hits all the notes you could ask of it, while avoiding the temptation to hyper-modernize the tale that sunk the latest The Three Musketeers (another of Dumas's works) movie. Speaking of, while The Three Musketeers seems to be the more popular of Dumas's works to translate, we should be getting a David Goyer-helmed adaptation of TCoMC that, although it sounds dubious given the people involved, should have the benefit of the doubt at least until trailers start to trickle out, just based on the strength of the work it's adapted from.
A fantastic adaptation of a notoriously difficult work to trim for film, it could've used a few better performances