M, 178 minutes
4 Stars
Review by © Jane Freebury
When the Three Musketeers films landed back-to-back on screen two years ago, it seemed to confirm that the historical action film was not by any means passé. It just needed some rejigging, a self-aware, more contemporary tone, and some thrilling cinematography (drones help). With bold lead characters, men and women, who looked the part, it could still work brilliantly.
Another swashbuckler inspired by the work of the 19th century novelist, Alexandre Dumas, has been underway since. It has involved some of the same key collaborators, who are directors as well as writers now. With its grand sweeping plot, lush historical settings and compelling protagonist, this won’t disappoint either. Monte Cristo is a thrilling ride, set during turbulent times in France when monarchists were wresting back control after the Napoleonic era.
In the first moments, a young sailor rescues a woman from a sinking ship. Disobeying orders but doing the right thing by saving a life, is the first, fateful act of Edmond Dantes (Pierre Niney), as a result of which the promising young mariner is chosen for advancement on the basis of merit, not class. Niney’s finely chiselled Gallic features suggest an aristocratic background, but when the young sailor returns home with news that he will be promoted to captain after his bravery, we see that his family are servants and it is the job of his frail, elderly father to polish the silver.
Significantly, it is 1815, the year that saw the end of Napoleon’s rule. Meritocratic ideals are out the window with a return to the old order of the thoroughly discredited Bourbon dynasty. In the ensuing struggle for power that it is the backstory to Monte Cristo, is it any wonder that the socio-political scene is festering with corruption and intrigue?
Fate starts its cruel game with poor Edmond on the day he is about to be married. He is dragged away from Mercedes (Anais Demoustier) at the altar on trumped up charges of treason and cast into prison. This presents the bride’s cousin, Fernand (Bastien Bouillon), with an opportunity to act on his own interest in her. During Dantes’ long years of incarceration in the infamous island prison off the coast of Italy, Mercedes and Fernand eventually marry and have a son, Albert (Vassili Schneider).
It isn’t any wonder the socio-political backstory is festering with corruption and intrigue
The loss of Mercedes is a bitter blow that Dantes refuses to accept, and he crafts an elaborate strategy for revenge that becomes riveting, and ultimately, disturbing. Fernand is in Edmond’s sights. So is the demoted, vengeful captain, Danglars (Patrick Mille), a shady type who becomes involved in the slave trade. And so is de Villefort (Laurent Lafitte), a powerful prosecutor who is revealed as having tried to kill his infant son. Andre is rescued, grows up in safety in an orphanage, and as a young man (played by Julien De Saint Jean) becomes a key player in Edmond’s plans for revenge.
During his long years of solitary confinement in the island prison, Edmond was alive but dead to the world. His kindly fellow inmate in the adjacent cell, Abbe Faria (Pierfrancesco Favina), was a man in possession of the spectacular secret on which the narrative turns. Faria tutors him in languages, in literature, philosophy, and science. Indeed, all the tools that Edmond will need to convince the world of his new identity when he eventually manages to escape and walk free as a fabulously wealthy count with entrée to the governing elite in Restoration France.
Effortlessly coherent, engrossing and entertaining
Screenwriters Alexandre de La Patelliere and Matthieu Delaporte, who have adapted Dumas’ lengthy original story of some 1,300 pages together, co-direct. They have brought together a historical action film so coherent, engrossing and entertaining that it fills the three hours of running time effortlessly.
A few take-away messages seem timely. Of course, power corrupts, and power without accountability corrupts absolutely, but what about the individual Dantes seeking justice who finds himself unable to draw the line. As he plots for younger generations to carry the grudge forward, righting wrongs comes to look like naked revenge.
Here, in this terrific standalone adventure the timeless passions are greater, the stakes higher and the fatalism more acute. As a grand historical narrative with dashing romantic figures, sword fights and duelling pistols at dawn, it is both escapist fare, and yet it isn’t.
First published in the Canberra Times on 11 April 2025. Jane’s reviews are also published by Rotten Tomatoes
Feature image of Pierre Niney as the Count courtesy Palace Films