Last week, I watched the 2024 French Count of Monte Cristo. It feels a little weird to use the adjective “French” there, given the origin of the book. Hint: Dumas wasn’t no Englishman!
I’ve read the book at least three times, twice abridged, and once unabridged. It’s true that the abridgment loses several plot points that add texture to the overall narrative. But it also cuts out the specific roads the Count travels upon while in Rome. I’m not trying to meet the man for lunch!
The movie is gorgeous. One of the best films I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen more than five or six, if you can believe it. True, it deviates from the source material a bit, adding new characters, and introducing a sword fight. Counterpoint: more movies should end in sword fights! Good Will Hunting? Let Robin Williams fence! I can think of more than one movie where the audience might actually stay awake with a good pointed thrust or two.
My son walked in 30 minute in, insisted he didn’t want a recap, then sat enraptured for the next two and a half hours as the movie unfolded. This book is no stranger to the screen, so maybe this French studio was hitting their panic button when they funded the thing. I suspect if that were the case, they’d have lobbed an hour off either end, for kicks.
This is Edmond Dantes as a super hero, with Mission Impossible style face masks, a Batman made flesh. It’s a good movie! But I couldn’t help but tie those threads together: superheroes and a studio’s safe bet. What are they doing over there at Marvel? Squeezing the dust from a withered utter and praying the cow will be reborn again. I smelled desperation when Downey Jr was back. The scent became overpowering when the Russos returned to direct. Now that Steve Rogers is here too? That’s a vote of no confidence so strong, even my gas masks need gas masks. They desperate desperate, as the kids say.