brilliant adaptation

Edmond Dantes (Jim Caviezel) takes what he believes is an innocent letter on behalf of Napoleon. His friend Fernand Mondego (Guy Pearce) betrays him. Dantes is sent to the Chateau d'If where he spends many years during which he meets a priest who will teach him to read, to write and many subjects. The priest will also tell him where a certain treasure is buried and with it, Edmond will become the Count of Monte Cristo, and eventually will seek out revenge to those who betrayed him.

To be honest, I didn't expect this to be a great film. At best, I expected an acceptable action film. However, I soon realized that it was a great film! What can you not love: it's comedy, romance, action, drama - all in one movie!

The script was great and has wonderful one-liners: "I'm a priest, not a saint" (and later "I'm a count, not a saint") is one of the best lines of the film.

The actors were all quite credible, and offered nice performances. Luis Guzman probably has the best role as Jacopo, the Count of Monte Cristo's aide.

As for the action, I felt that there weren't enough of it, although the fencing scenes were well done.

A brilliant adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' novel of the same name, I highly recommend this film.


9/10