“Count of Monte Cristo” Movie Review

When someone has stabbed you in the back the only logical thing at the time is to stab them back but in all reality this will accomplish nothing. Everyone knows misery loves company and revenge is the perfect partner. Most of the time it takes others to show you the good things in life that make that one bad one seem less severe that it doesn’t matter. In the movie “The Count of Monte Cristo”, Edmund Dantes (Jim Caviezel) must go through trial and tribulations as he learns the biggest lesson of his life.

Dantes is a poor sailor that dreams of one day owning his own ship so he may marry his longtime love Mercedes (Dagmara Dominczyk) and give her everything she deserves. In an attempt to save his captains life land on an island to seek medical attention. Dantes and his best friend, Fernand Mondego (Guy Pearce), soon realize they have landed on the island Elba, where Napoleon has be exiled to.

In order to use Napoleon’s doctor. Dantes must take a secret letter back to France having no idea what the letter contains. Unfortunately the captain does not live and Dantes and Mondego return to France. The captain recognized his altruistic behavior and made him ship captain enabling him to later proposes to Mercedes with a string promising to later replace it with a real ring. That night he is arrested on charges of conspiracy against the country and when seeking help from Mondego he learns that he is the one that turned him in. Dantes is sent to Chateau D’lf, the jail for country’s criminals who they wish no one to know of. While in the Chateau, another prisoner emerges from a tunnel he has been digging for decades in the wrong direction.

The prisoner, Faria, is an old priest that promises Dantes to teach him everything he knows if he aids in the digging the tunnel to the outer wall. In his education, Dante not only learns how he was set up but of the fabled treasure of Monte Cristo. Before Faria can inform Dante on the treasures worth, he dies. But with his death, Dantes sees an opportunity for an easy getaway. Although Dantes has a new true friend that would never betray him, a vast fortune and freedom all he wants is the revenge that has consumed him for all those years. As the revenge plot plays out, Dantes learns that no matter how much you get back at those who stabbed you it will never fully replace what they did. The only way to fill the void is to forget, forgive and move on with those who truly mean something to you.

The movie truly reflects on of life’s biggest lesson. Family and friends are all you need to be happy. It shows the true battle Edmonds faces and how he grows as a character. The movie illustrates the purpose of book without sacrificing detail that Hollywood loves to do. With excellent acting and riveting plot, “The Count of Monte Cristo” has captured a spot on my Top 5 list in both movie and book form.