The Count of Monte Cristo

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His ambitions are fueled by revenge.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Story Line:</B> The first exile of the film that we encounter is Napoleon on the isle of Elba. When the ship, with a dying captain and crew members Fernand Mondego (Guy Pearce) and Edmund Dantes (James Caviezel), sets ashore there, Napoleon gives Dantes a letter to deliver to one of his supporters when the young sailor returns home. Mondego is angry when Dantes doesn't share this secret with him. He's infuriated when Dantes is made Captain when they return to port and he can now afford to marry the beautiful Mercedes (Dagmara Dominczyk), whom, of course, Mondego wants for himself. </div> <bR> <div> Mondego has two outstanding traits; he's rich and he's spiteful. He sets up Dantes to take a fall for treason for conspiring with Napoleon. A powerful local official named Villefort (James Frain) has his own personal reason for wanting Dantes silenced; so it's the dark, dank confines of an isolated prison for him. </div> <bR> <div> While imprisoned Dantes meets an old priest, Faria (Richard Harris), who educates him concerning worldly matters such as reading, survival and swordplay.  Faria also passes along some practical information regarding a fortune that Dantes can lay claim to, if he can manage to escape; which the two of them are working on. </div> <div> Once off  "the rock," Dantes befriends a crafty pirate (Luis Guzman) who becomes an accomplice in the grand charade of the Count of Monte Cristo. Sounds swashbuckling good so far. But, alas, the Count falls on his sword…read on.</div> <div>  </div> <div> <B>Tell Me More About It</B>: Drawn from the pages of the Alexander Dumas novel of the same name, <I>this</I> Count of Monte Cristo is a pale interpretation. Somewhere along the line the screenplay writer (Jay Wolpert) and the director (Kevin Reynolds) seem to have decided to go for "camp," but too late. There's a lot of flourish, with swordplay and billowing cloaks and gowns but no fury. There's grandeur, wide expanses and rich palaces but no passion. It's hard to get worked up over these characters when they seem <I>not</I> to be working too hard to garner our involvement. The notable exception is Richard Harris. Other actors should have been paying attention.</div> <bR> <div> Guy Pearce can certainly generate excitement in a performance, as he did in <I><B>Memento. </B></I>James Caviezel can elicit compassion from us as he's done in <I><B>Pay It Forward</B></I> and <I>Frequency</I><B>. </B>Unfortunately, in <I><B>The Count of Monte Cristo </B></I>Pearce slashes (read <I>chews</I>) the scenery as Mondego and Caviezel is a simpering Dantes. </div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="591" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="587"><div>   Rating</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="587"><div> Pam Singleton © 2002</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="587"><div> <A HREF="mailto:Reelmoviec@aol.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:Reelmoviec@aol.com"><U><U>pam@reelmoviecritic.com</U></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> Mini Filmography </div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="579" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 38 WIDTH="286"><div> Guy Pearce: <I><B>Memento</B></I></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="286"><div> James Caviezel: <I><B>Pay It Forward, Frequency</B></I></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 38 WIDTH="286"><div> Richard Harris: <I><B>Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone</B></I></div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> Dagmara Dominczyk: <I>Rock Star</I></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> James Frain: <I>Reindeer Games</I></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="286"><div> Kevin Reynolds: <I>Waterworld</I></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>