Review of 'The Count of Monte Cristo': A sumptuous revenge is served

The muscular, bloodthirsty howl of “Gladiator II” isn’t its only shot at a sweeping period spectacle this season, thanks to the renewed appeal that OG adventure auteur Alexandre Dumas has had on the French film industry of late.

Last year's abundant two-part film “The Three Musketeers” (“D'Artagnan” and “Milady”) has been followed by an even bigger and no less enjoyable import: a new adaptation of “The Count of Monte Cristo,” directed from “Musketeers” screenwriters and official Dumas fans Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière. Cinephiles will want to augment their starchy and vigorous diet of Roman vengeance with the Gallic herbal mother sauce that overflows this “Monte Cristo”; After all, “Gladiator” tips its helmet to “Ben-Hur,” which was directly inspired by Dumas' revenge classic. .

And like any multi-course French feast worth enjoying, this one lasts three hours. But that time flies by, like a cozy night in with an episode binge. This spicy condensation of an 18-volume, 1,300-page epic is a model of streamlining, even if the narrative's many tantalizing threads, emotions, and complications could be developed further. That's the irony, though, of investing raptly in a story that conveys the weight of decades: nuance is earned, and if applied well becomes the difference between a merely torn thread and a satisfyingly complete one.

But this lack of subtlety is hardly a criticism, for what is on display here, whether on land or sea, marked by prosperity or doom, is a wonderful and enthralling pleasure. For starters, there's the superb casting of brooding, almond-eyed Pierre Niney (“Frantz”), whose man-of-few-words intensity suggests the offspring of a swashbuckler and a troubled art romantic. That alchemy becomes a potent asset as his Edmond, a young sea captain accused of treason by his jealous friend Fernand (Bastien Bouillon) and his resentful crewmate Danglars (Patrick Mille) and sentenced to life in prison by the corrupt Prosecutor Villefort (Laurent Lafitte), becomes the whirlwind victim of a masked and mysterious conspirator.

Help comes first with a wise Italian cellmate and mentor (Pierfrancesco Favino) and an excitingly depicted escape after 14 years (a simple problem for us) in an island prison. Appearing again disguised as a rich, worldly, black-clad count (but harboring an elaborate plan of retaliation), Edmond returns to the prosperous lives of the men who betrayed him. He also discovers a son (Vassili Schneider) that Fernand, now a war hero, fathered after winning Edmond's devastated fiancée, Mercédès (Anaïs Demoustier). At the Count's side are a bitter orphaned young man (Julien de Saint Jean) and a woman (Anamaria Vartolomei) with their own reasons for becoming adopted in their benefactor's plan.

Delaporte and De La Patellière understand that Dumas's type of fictional revenge, whether froid either chaudis best displayed on screen in the most picturesque European locations, with cinematographer Nicolas Bolduc's cameras ready to swoop and soar as needed, and gallop away, never wasting time. Again, it might have been nice if the film had lingered more on certain intimate moments, especially when Niney has his big declaration of intent scene, alone in a church, ranting against God, ready to settle the score. That moment almost demands a fiery extended soliloquy, not the rushed version offered.

But the filmmakers know when to stretch the tension elsewhere, as in a delightfully mean-spirited dinner scene in which the Count, armed with the secret sins of his unwitting targets, toys with them, a performance that also reveals a hint of the dangerousness of his cruelty. Of course, as “Monte Cristo” unfolds, we must question everything that breeds a cold-justice mentality, and yes, those lessons become something of a moral rampage. But that's only after so much enjoyment of the exploits of one of literature's archetypal punishers, who welcomes nightmares, he explains, because “they keep my wounds fresh.” Joyeux noël, mes amis!