This miniseries rendering of pulp novelist Dumas' 18th century "The Count of Monte Cristo" runs about 6.6 hours in length, all of it subtitled for non-French speakers. That's a whole lot of reading. However, the length allows this version of the oft filmed story to bring the characters to life in truer fashion and with greater depth than the many abbreviated knock-offs. The result is an expansive, in-depth telling the young French sailor, Edmond Dantès, who is wrongfully imprisoned for 14 years, discovers a treasure which makes him filthy rich, then uses the wealth to sustain his own cunning schemes as he seeks vengeance under an assumed identity as The Count of Monte Cristo. This film offers a fine cast with Depardieu providing a commanding presence as the charismatic Count and no one does French period films better than the French. Deficits are small, easily overlooked non sequiturs such as having to swallow the robust form of Depardieu as a man who lived for years on the meager sustenance of the dungeons of D'If...etc. An excellent but long presentation which trades the usual swashbuckling and action of the more abbreviated knock-offs for a more faithful presentation of the sagacious Count who seeks to understand who he's become and reconcile that with the man who lusts for vengeance. (B+)
Review of The Count of Monte Cristo
