‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ evaluation: Sumptuous revenge is required

The brawny, bloodthirsty scream of “Gladiator II” is not your solely alternative for a rousing interval spectacle this season, because of the renewed fascination that OG journey auteur Alexandre Dumas has positioned on the movie business French in latest instances.

Last yr’s wonderful two-parter “The Three Musketeers” (“D’Artagnan” and “Milady”) has now been adopted by a good better and no much less entertaining movie: a brand new adaptation of “The Count of Monte Cristo”, directed by the screenwriters of “The Musketeers” and official Dumasphiles Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière. Moviegoers will need to increase their starchy, beefy eating regimen of Roman revenge with the natural Gallic mom sauce that beats this “Monte Cristo” — in any case, “Gladiator” ideas its helmet to “Ben-Hur,” which was immediately impressed by Dumas’ revenge basic. .

And like all multi-course French feast that deserves its indulgence, this one lasts three hours. But that point flies, like a comfy night with a binge of episodes. This full of life condensation of an 18-volume, 1300-page epic is a mannequin of streamlining, even when the narrative’s many tantalizing threads, thrills and problems could possibly be fleshed out much more. This is the irony, although, of rapt funding in a narrative that conveys the burden of many years: The nuance is earned, and if it is nicely utilized it turns into the distinction between a merely torn thread and a satisfyingly full one.

But this absence of subtlety is barely a criticism, for what’s on show right here, whether or not on land or at sea, marked by bloom or smash, is a wondrous and enthralling pleasure. For starters, there’s the excellent casting of the brooding, almond-eyed Pierre Niney (“Frantz”), whose man-of-few-words depth suggests the progeny of a swaggering, tormented arthouse romantic. That chemistry turns into a strong asset as its Edmond, a younger ship captain framed for treason by his jealous buddy Fernand (Bastien Bouillon) and resentful teammate Danglars (Patrick Mille) and despatched to life in jail by the corrupt prosecutor Villefort ( Laurent Lafitte), goes from the whirlwind sufferer of a masked and mysterious conspirator.

Help arrives first with a sensible Italian cellmate and mentor (Pierfrancesco Favino) and a thrillingly depicted escape after 14 years (a mere accident for us) in an island jail. Appearing once more in disguise as a wealthy, worldly, black-clad earl (however with an elaborate plan of revenge), Edmond returns to the affluent lives of the lads who betrayed him. He additionally discovers a son (Vassili Schneider) that Fernand, now a conflict hero, fathered after taking Edmond’s deceased fiancée Mercédès (Anaïs Demoustier) for himself. Alongside the Count are an embittered, orphaned younger man (Julien de Saint Jean) and a girl (Anamaria Vartolomei) with causes of their very own to turn into adoptees of their benefactor’s plan.

Delaporte and De La Patellière perceive what sort of novelistic revenge of Dumas, if Cold OR warmthis finest served on display in essentially the most picturesque European places, with cinematographer Nicolas Bolduc’s cameras able to glide and soar as wanted, and tempo to gallop, by no means losing time. Again, it will have been good if the movie had lingered extra on sure intimate moments, particularly when Niney will get his huge assertion scene, alone in a church, railing towards God, able to settle a rating. That second virtually requires a fiery prolonged soliloquy, not the rushed model provided.

But the filmmakers know when to stretch the strain elsewhere, as in a delightfully mean-spirited dinner scene during which the Count, armed with the key sins of his unwitting targets, performs with them, a efficiency that betrays even a touch of the dangerousness of his cruelty. Of course, as “Monte Cristo” unfolds, we should always query every little thing operated from a chilly justice mindset, and sure, these classes turn into a little bit of an ethical buzzkill. But that is solely after he is been in a position to savor a lot from the exploits of considered one of literature’s archetypal punishers, that he welcomes nightmares, he explains, as a result of “they hold my wounds contemporary.” Merry Christmas, my associates!