movie review, 'the count of monte cristo' - metromix chicago movies

movie review, 'the count of monte cristo' - metromix chicago movies sign up | log in | forgot password restaurants bars & clubs events music movies theater tv (e.g."sushi 60622" or "byob italian") home > movies > editorial review > movie review, 'the count of monte cristo' movie review, 'the count of monte cristo' by michael wilmington january 24, 2002 email print view share digg del.icio.us facebook furl google reddit spurl yahoo some tales are told just once or twice, but "the count of monte cristo," it seems, will be with us forever. especially in the movies. the new touchstone version - directed by kevin reynolds and starring jim caviezel as edmond dantes (aka the count) - is the most recent of at least 30 other movie adaptations, dating back to 1908, of alexandre dumas' classic story of injustice and revenge. unfortunately, it's one of the most overblown and disappointing: a big, vacuous, sometimes exciting glamour-puss of a movie. the story, as always, is an archetypal saga of rags to riches, hideous injustice and implacable revenge, set during and after the napoleonic era in 19th-century france. once again, edmond dantes seems just on the verge of well-deserved youthful triumph - newly appointed ship's captain and about to marry his loving mercedes (dagmara dominczyk) - when his jealous rivals fernand mondego (guy pearce) and danglars (albie woodington) secretly frame him as a bonapartist spy, and the corrupt prosecutor de villefort (james frain) seals edmond's fate to shield his own bonapartist father (freddie jones). imprisoned for 14 years in the chateau d'if, a kind of french alcatraz, edmond escapes with the aid of his wise prison mate, abbe faria (richard harris), who also educates him and points him toward a vast fortune buried on the isle of monte cristo: a treasure that will give edmond all the loot he needs for his final furious campaign. one of the reasons dumas' "the count of monte cristo" has lasted so long and been filmed so many times is that it satisfies so well our fantasies about paying back our enemies. it's about a man whose life is wantonly destroyed, whose persecutors attain high position - villefort becomes chief prosecutor of france, danglars a banker, mondego both a general and mercedes' husband - but who then saves himself and assaults them at the highest levels. it doesn't matter if the novel lacks the formal brilliance of flaubert, the realism of balzac or the psychological savvy of stendhal; it's a great yarn, breathlessly told, ideal for the movies. but it's not ideal for this one. reynolds does in this movie pretty much what he did to the robin hood myth in his 1991 "robin hood: prince of thieves": strip the narrative down and then overdress and load it with contemporary parallels and steals from other movies. the screenwriter, jay wolpert, a tv game-show creator and producer for goodson-todman and chuck barris, may have seen the 1959 "ben-hur" too many times. wolpert turns edmond and mondego into boyhood chums and rivals who fall out, like judah ben-hur and messala. meanwhile, james frain plays villefort as if it were a role for robert downey jr., and luis guzman plays monte cristo's servant jacopo as if it were a role for cheech marin; his jacopo is a comic sidekick and ex-pirate buffoon. at least guzman has some fun with his part; the other actors tend to drown their characters in phony grand opera excess. harris is trotted out as if the abbe faria were king lear at the least. and, at the center of the movie, caviezel doesn't suggest youthful idealism curdling into lust for vengeance, nor does he get the count's urbanity and bitter irony, his inexorable entrapment of his enemies. at best, he suggests a youthfully sweet candor curdling into petulant stubbornness and narcissism. this is a clotheshorse "monte cristo" with perfume-ad backgrounds and over-the-top action sequences. that's really a letdown, considering it was only four years ago that gerard depardieu and director josee dayan made their massive, very faithful seven-hour version for french tv, and 68 years since robert donat starred in what is still the paradigmatic movie version, the 1934 rowland lee film. this "count of monte cristo" is another case of touchstone mucking around with dumas, just as they fiddled with "the three musketeers" in 1993, and just as universal/miramax diddled with it again in last year's witless "the musketeer." like those two travesties, this seems to be a movie made by people who love the old classic movie swashbucklers but don't have a clue how to make or modernize them. i'm surprised they didn't call this movie "the count." 2 stars "the count of monte cristo" directed by kevin reynolds; written by jay wolpert; photographed by andrew dunn; edited by stephen semel, chris womack; production designed by mark geraghty; music by edward shearmur; produced by roger birnbaum, gary barber, jonathan glickman. a touchstone pictures release; opens friday, jan. 25. running time: 2:11. mpaa rating: pg-13 (adventure violence/swordplay and some sensuality). edmond dantes/the count of monte cristo - jim caviezel fernand mondego - guy pearce mercedes - dagmara dominczyk abbe faria - richard harris jacopo - luis guzman villefort - james frain dorleac - michael wincott michael wilmington is the chicago tribune movie critic. 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