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Review by Jack Foley |
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HOLLYWOOD has failed to do justice to the work of Alexandre Dumas in recent
years, given the shoddy re-workings of classics such as The Three Musketeers
and The Man In The Iron Mask.
But salvation is at hand with Tinseltown's latest, The Count of Monte Cristo,
a stylish, intelligent and very well put together movie, directed by Kevin
Reynolds of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves fame.
For those who are unfamiliar with the tale, this is the classic story of an
innocent man wrongly, but deliberately, imprisoned and his subsequent plan
for revenge against those who betrayed him.
Jim Caviezel is the dashing young sailor Edmond Dantes, whose promising career
and upcoming marriage to the beautiful Mercedes (Dagmara Dominczyk) are ruined
by his best friend Fernand (Guy Pearce), who wants Mercedes for himself.
Enlisting the help of Richard Harris's wily fellow inmate, Dantes educates
himself and then escapes from the island fortress holding him, before transforming
into the mysterious and wealthy Count of Monte Cristo and forming a plan to
ruin those who enslaved him.
Caviezel is becoming something of an expert at playing morally-conflicted
heroes - witness his turns in both The Thin Red Line and Frequency - and the
promising work he did in both of those movies is fully realised here.
The actor brings an emotional depth not usually associated with swashbucklers
of this nature, helping to turn Reynolds' movie into the intriguing couple
of hours that it is.
And while the action is well-staged, it never threatens to over-run proceedings,
so anyone anticipating a return to the type of effort that was Prince of Thieves
or even the Dumas translations of Richard Chamberlain's day may find themselves
clock-watching.
Producer Gary Barber admits that this Count is 'different from previous versions'
in that it follows some of the events of the book more closely and the 'characters
have more depth'.
As such, his leads have plenty to work with and aside from Caviezel, Pearce
makes for a terrifically hiss-worthy villain (complete with a nice line in
sarcastic putdown), Harris appears to be having a blast as Dantes' friend
and mentor and the likes of Luis Guzman (as Jacopo) and Michael Wincott add
some much needed humour. Only Dominczyk is really found wanting from the cast.
The Count of Monte Cristo harks back to a time when story played a bigger
part than action or special effects and, as a result, is all the more enjoyable
for it. Dumas, I'm sure, would be fairly impressed with the attention to detail.
