Movie Review: ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’

During a violent storm in the Mediterranean Sea, the survivors of a burning ship jump into the turbulent waters for safety. A passing vessel pauses to watch but offers no assistance.

There is one sailor onboard however, Edmond Dantès (Pierre Niney), who sees a woman floating near his ship and decides to take action. Against his captain’s orders, Edmond jumps into the water and brings her to safety on his ship. The woman, Angèle (Adèle Simphal), is carrying a secret letter signed by the recently exiled Napoleon Bonaparte. The letter is confiscated by the captain.

Later, on shore at the ship’s headquarters, Edmond and the captain are in the office of the owner. The owner chastises the captain for not taking action to help the survivors of the burning ship – he fires him on the spot.

To Edmond, he heaps accolades for saving the woman and promotes him to the position of captain. The joyful Edmond rushes home with the good news, which will now allow him to marry. He proposes to Mercédès (Anais Demoustier) and asks her cousin to be his best man. Her cousin, who also has feelings for her, reluctantly agrees.

The wedding is held in a beautifully decorated church filled with family and friends. Moments into the ceremony the police burst into the church and arrest Edmond for being a Bonapartist. The captain had turned the Napoleon letter over to the police. They investigated the woman carrying the letter, and by association, implicated Edmond as her conspirator.

Mercédès cousin sees the opportunity to rid himself of a competitor for her affections and testifies that Edmond is in fact a Bonapartist. With disregard to his proclaimed innocence, the wrongly accused Edmond is sentenced to incarceration at the Château d’If prison, located on a small island off the port city of Marseille.

Four years pass before, quite by accident, Edmond has contact with a fellow prisoner. Abbé Faria (Pierfrancesco Fabio) has spent years imprisoned in d’If and during his time has been digging an escape tunnel. Instead of reaching the prison’s outer walls and freedom, he tunnels into Edmond’s cell. Faria educates his new friend in worldly matters and reveals the location of treasures left by the Templars on the island of Monte Cristo. An unexpected event provides Edmond the chance to escape. Once home, he finds that after 14 years, things have drastically changed. He sets out for Monte Cristo to find the Templar treasure.

A year later Edmond returns, this time as Le Comte de Monte Cristo. He finds Angèle near death, having been sold into slavery after his incarceration and, later, having given birth to a son. Edmond promises to find her son, now a young adult, and seek revenge for those who have been responsible for their tragedies.

He finds the son and renames him Prince Andrea Cavalcanti. The two set out to seek revenge, or as Edmond likes to put it: “justice.”

Directed by Alexandre de La Patellièr and Matthieu Delaporte, “The Count of Monte Cristo” runs 178 minutes and is a “must see” for an intriguingly complex story sensitively and beautifully brought to life. An elegant tribute to the famed 19th-century French writer/dramatist Alexander Dumas, who wrote the story. This film premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.