 Movie
Reviews
with Evelyn Gough
The Count of Monte Cristo
Directed by Kevin Reynolds
 After years of wrongful imprisonment, Edmond Dantes (Jim Caviezel, right) swears revenge upon the person who landed him there - his onetime friend, Fernand Mondego (Guy Pearce, left).
I'm not ashamed to admit that I haven't read Alexander Dumas' classic novel. But I am ashamed to admit I watched a made-for-television movie version, starring Richard Chamberlain.
Now Dumas' swashbuckling tale of betrayal and revenge, The Count of Monte Cristo, hits the big screens courtesy of the Disney studios. If you're a fan of this genre (of good-looking young men in tight pants whacking at each other with swords) then you're in for a treat.
Beautifully filmed in Malta and Ireland, director Kevin Reynolds offers a movie that's very easy on the eyes. And the countryside's not bad either.
Set in the early 19th century, it's the tale of young, naive Edmond Dantes (Jim Caviezel), an uneducated French sailor who is far too nice and far too trusting for his own good. (No prizes for guessing he'll soon be in deep doo doo.)
Not only can't he see the bleeding obvious - that his so-called best friend Fernand (Guy Pearce) has the hots for his gorgeous fiancee Mercedes (Dominique Dominczyk) - he also agrees to smuggle a letter from the imprisoned Napoleon Bonaparte. It can only lead to trouble, which it does, and Edmund finds himself an unwilling guest of the French government. Betrayed by Fernand, he's destined to spend 14 years in a hell-hole of a prison, with family and friends convinced that he's dead.
But looking on the bright side, he does make a friend - a fellow prisoner (Richard Harris), who not only teaches him to read, write and fight, he also gives Edmund a treasure map to a massive fortune hidden on the island of Monte Cristo.
Does Edmund escape? And how will he exact his revenge upon his old mate Fernand? Nowadays he could invite him to be a surprise guest on the Jerry Springer show titled 'My best friend framed me so he could sleep with my girlfriend.' But with the invention of television still two centuries away (give or take several decades), our hero has to resort to a far more elaborate plan...
If you appreciate old fashioned adventure movies of the kneebuck... err... swashbuckling type, full of romance, drama, a dash of black humour, with stunning cinematography and a deliciously hammy performance from our own Guy Pearce, then The Count of Monte Cristo is your man.
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