The Count of Monte Cristo

Jim Caviezel and Richard Harris in Kevin Reynolds' take on "The Count of Monte Cristo"

 "It is difficult to fight against anger, for a man will buy revenge with his soul"-Heraclites, 500 B.C.

    That is perhaps the most apt summation of The Count of Monte Cristo. Not simply a study in revenge, but in revenge for perhaps the most profound of betrayals.

    Edmond Dantès (Jim Caviezel) has been betrayed by his lifelong friend Fernand Mondego (Guy Pearce). Mondego took the whole of the life that was to belong to Dantès. He is understandably upset. Imprisoned in the Château d'If for a good many years for unfounded treason charges, it is a wonder he did not give in to total madness before Abbé Faria (Richard Harris) appears suddenly through the stone floor. He is granted not just a new opportunity at life though tunneling under the wall, but a chance at a greater life once out, with the knowledge the priest provides him.

    The film does not really begin to hit its stride till Dantès has escaped and found the company of some sea-bound smugglers. After winning a knife fight with the equally downtrodden Jacopo (Luis Guzmán), Jacopo swears an allegiance to Dantès that will come in handy if he is to carry out his plot of revenge. Seizing the treasure of Monte Cristo and positioning himself within Parisian aristocracy as a count, Dantès sets his pieces and then puts them in motion with the expertise of Gary Kasparov. Even unexpected developments like the realization that he has a son with his former beloved, do nothing to stray his determination.

    In the end his ultimate revenge is complete, though for my observation, a little unfulfilling. True, he took his former friend's life, his money, and took back all that had been taken from him. He took the full measure of Mondego when he took his life. He took all that he is, was, and ever will be. What was missing was the suffering. His agony, I feel, was not comparable to Dantès'. But the revenge was Dantès', not mine after all. If he was satisfied with it, that alone is enough. He bought his revenge, but his soul he kept.

8/10