Count of Monte Cristo- 1/25/02 - PG-13 - 131m
James Caviezel
Guy Pearce
Dagmara Dominczyk
Director: Kevin Reynolds

JEF

I rented this DVD because it was one of those movies that I had wanted to see, but missed it in the theatre. I was curious about this movie for two reasons; 1) It was a movie that had sword fighting, and 2) It was a classic novel by Alexandre Dumas père (best known for writing "The Three Musketeers").
The movie is about two childhood friends Edmond (Jim Caviezel) and Fernand (Guy Pearce) who grew up, and had a competitive relationship. Edmond meets a woman and is due to marry her when their financial situation improves. Meanwhile Fernand starts to become jealous, and then things go bad. Basically Fernand sets Edmond up for a crime, and Edmond is sent to jail for 13 years. The rest of the movie is about Edmonds pursuit of revenge against Fernand.
My biggest complaint about this movie was that I felt it was too slow moving. I think because the storyline seemed stale to me. There was nothing in the movie that came as a surprise to me. Perhaps because this was a novel written so long ago, that since that time there have been "remakes" of the same general story.
On the plus side, the cinematography was nice. The costumes were well done, and the dialogue felt real and not forced. The actress who played "Mercedes" (Dagmara Dominczyk) was very good. I was also pleased to see one of my favorite character actors in this as well Luis Guzmán who played the part of a Spanish pirate "Jacopo".
Overall I didn’t mind this movie and would recommend it only with the warning that it’s a bit slow. If you are ready for that I think it would have been more enjoyable. I was expecting more of a swashbuckling adventure movie, and was a bit let down.

Jef