The stirring adaptation of the famous French historical adventure novel, “The Count of Monte Cristo,” by Alexandre Dumas and his collaborator Auguste Maquet, has the same swashbuckling force as Dumas’ popular work “The Three Musketeers.”
While the film is just shy of three hours long, “The Count of Monte Cristo” gallops along at a breathtaking pace. Directed by Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte, it opens at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center on January 3. The richly complex plot is thoroughly absorbing as you eagerly wait to see what happens next.
I promise not to include any spoilers here, but I will share the early setup for the plot and four main characters as an enticement to see how it all unfolds.
The film opens with the dramatic rescue of a drowning woman in a stormy sea by our hero, the sailor Edmond Dantès, deftly played by Pierre Niney. His good deed is met with fury by Edmond’s villainous captain, Danglars (Patrick Mille), who gets his hands on an incriminating letter signed by Napoleon, who is trying to return to power. When the ship returns, Danglars is stripped of his position for almost letting the woman drown, and Edmond is promoted to captain. Unbeknownst to Edmond, he has made a dangerous enemy.
With a secure position and salary, Edmond can now marry his fiancée, Mercédès, who belongs to a wealthy family. Unfortunately, Edmond’s best friend Fernand (Bastien Bouillon) also loves Mercédès––but the couple move forward with their plans.
It all dramatically ignites at their wedding, when Edmond is arrested. He is falsely accused of being an agent for Napoleon. The proof is the letter Danglars had and spitefully planted in Edmond’s Bible. The double-dealing prosecutor Villefort (Laurent Lafitte) is in on the plot, and when he questions Fernand as a character witness, Fernand betrays his romantic rival.
These three men are responsible for Edmond’s grueling 14-year solitary imprisonment on a grim, remote island. We witness Edmond deteriorate, going mad in his underground cell. Four years in, Edmond connects with the prisoner Abbé Faria (Pierfrancesco Favino) in the next cell. The two create a hole between them and plan their escape. During the years it takes to dig a tunnel out of the prison, Faria educates Edmond. “History, mathematics, languages. They are weapons. They free you.” Faria also informs him of a hidden treasure. Sadly, just before a daring, nail-biting escape, the abbot dies. Amazingly, Edmond succeeds, and goes to collect the riches.
Now fabulously wealthy and highly educated like a nobleman, Edmond reinvents himself as the Count de Monte Cristo. He enters the fashionable Parisian world with a cunning plan to get revenge on Danglars, Villefort, and Fernand, who have thrived and believe Edmond is dead. During a card game where he is heavily disguised as the Count, Edmond tells the men, “Let’s say I care for many people, but I only properly hate a select few.”
Lest you think the film is all male, women feature prominently, creating several intertwining love plots and raising the question of whether love or hate will triumph. And hold on for a hair-raising ending as the pendulum swings this way and that.
Although “The Count of Monte Cristo” is a wild, luxuriously produced adventure film, Edmond’s faceted character highlights multiple, sometimes contradictory themes of justice, vengeance, mercy, and forgiveness, adding extra depth to what is often considered a literary classic.
“The Count of Monte Cristo” starts on Jan. 3. For tickets and information, visit mvfilmsociety.com/2024/12/the-count-of-monte-cristo.
