Revenge, love and (the rest is missing...) (The Count Of Monte Cristo (DVD))

Member Name: buster19761976

Product:	The Count Of Monte Cristo (DVD)
Date:	12/07/06 (77 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great, well acted period piece.

Disadvantages: Misses out much of the book

Jim Caviezel stars in this big budget Hollywood-style adaptation of the book by Alexandre Dumas. He's the fella from Frequency, the muddled time-travel-communication film with Dennis Quaid. It's a good try at representing the 900-page epic, which in its original form was serialised over dozens of editions of a French newspaper. It's a fiction, based loosely on dozens of separate events from various reports, most of which were rumour in Dumas' time. Similar in its adaptation to a book as The Three Musketeers, La Reine Margot or Twenty Years After.

It's tough to talk about The Count without giving away too much. I'll try not to deal with plot points but will attempt to con/trick/persuade you into watching this (hopefully you'll read the book too - it's wonderful).

The plot (well, as much as I can tell you about)
Edmond Dantes is a sailor and is to be Captain of the Phaeron, a ship in the company of Monsieur Morrell & Son of Marseille. His beautiful bride-to-be Mercedes is coveted by another and his destiny is decided by that jealousy and the envy of his so-called friends. Add to this an ambitious but bad-natured Prosecutor and poor Dantes has no chance. That is until, 14 years late, a mysterious Count begins taking action against those that wronged Dantes.

The movie covers a few of the plot points, but skips some of the most interesting, including a great section concerning his father's friend, Caderousse, and a diamond. The bandit, Luigi Vampa is skipped and the use of the telegraph system ignored - all salient plot points. The remaining plot is well executed, though readers of the book will miss many of the events that make the book so fast-paced. Movement between the chapters is okay - the gaps are just ignored rather than assumed and Dumas' language is mostly preserved (with the exception of the oft-used "Ma Foi!" from the book) in its style at least. It's a rollicking story, dealing with revenge, love, religion and class society. It dabbles in the French court and the movements of Napoleon, it delves into a little gentlemanly duelling and even some family issues. Dantes has a generally torrid time of it, even once his jail ordeal is over.

The acting
Luis Guzman and Richard Harris are brilliant, though not in portraying the book's characters. They make their characters their own though - especially Harris as the eccentric Abbe Faria. Guy Pearce is brilliant, if a bit camp. The ladies are all a bit weak, though the original story has them fainting at every opportunity, so maybe they were trying for weak.

Sound and music
All good. The DVD is clear and the (sometimes heavy) dialogue is easily followed.

Extras
My one was rubbish, with no extras to speak of.

Summary
I hope one day someone makes a 5-hour epic that covers all of the story. It's a good film, but to say it's an adaptation of the book is untrue, but only because of the depth of the book.

Summary: Good film for Guy Pearce fans, Alexandre Dumas readers and history lovers.