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Sadly Over-hyped

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Set in the turbulent days in which France was transitioning away from Napoleonic rule . This the Classic tale from Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo' with Edmond Dantes (Gerard Depardieu) , a sailor who is falsely accused of treason by his his nemesis , Montego (Jean Rochefort) , who wants Dantes' girlfriend Mercedes for himself . Dantes is imprisoned on the island prison of Château d'If for 18 years, where he plots revenge against those who betrayed him . While imprisoned, he meets the Abbe Faria (Georges Moustaki), a fellow prisoner whom everyone believes to be mad. The Abbe tells Edmond of a fantastic treasure hidden away on a tiny island, that only he knows the location of. After many years in prison, the old Abbe dies, and Edmond escapes disguised as the dead body . He escapes the island and proceeds to transform himself into the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo as part of his plan to exact revenge against his enemies as Villefort (Pierre Arditi) and Danglars (Michael Aumont) . Good and colorful rendition based on the famous novel with emotional highs and lows , in which Edmond Dantes is unjustly sent to prison for 18 years , with the help of another prisoner he escapes to reclaim his fiancée Mercedes , the gorgeous Ornella Muti , and revenge against Montego and other contenders . A fine but overlong remake of the Alexander Dumas tale by the same name . In the film there are adventures , action , love stories , derring-do and results to be pretty amusing . Although runtime movie is approx. 400 min and some ; it is neither tiring , nor boring but entertaining . Cast is frankly well . Gerard Depardieu interpretation is first-rate . Jean Rochefort plays correctly the evil villain Montego and Ornella Muti is wonderful as the fiancée , now married to Montego . Riveting Georges Mustaki in brief appearances as Abbe Faria , he makes a phenomenal acting . It packs a shining and glimmer cinematography by Willy Stassen . And an emotive and evocative musical score by Bruno Coulais with superb leitmotif . This splendid TV series was well directed by Josée Dayan . The flick will appeal to adventures buffs and emotions lovers . Rating : 7/10 . Good , better than average . Well worth watching . Other adaptation about this known novel are the followings : ¨Count of Montecristo¨ by Rowland V Lee with Robert Donat , Louisa Landi , Louis Calhern ; El conde de Montecristo" (1953) by Leon Klimomovsky with Jorge Mistral ; ¨Le Comte De Monte Cristo ¨(1961) by Claude Aunt Lara with Lous Jourdan ; TV retelling by David Greene with Richard Chamberlain , Donald Pleasence , Tony Curtis ; ¨Le Comte De Monte-Cristo" series (1979) with Jacques Wever , The Count of Monte Cristo (1992) Kevin Reynolds with Jim Cazievel , Dagmara Domincyk , Guy Pearce , Richard Harris.

There have been numerous attempts to bring Dumas classic novel of romance, betrayal and revenge to the screen. This big budgeted french TV Mini Series rises high hopes but fails miserably. The producers relied heavily on the stardom of their principal actor Gerard Depardieu (1900, Greencard) and on what they thought was a script, true to the book (that is to the second half of the novel only). Sadly, neither the casting nor the script works for the film. At first, Depardieu, who was a perfect choice for the highly entertaining "Cyrano de Bergerac" years before, is a complete miscast here. His impersonation of Edmond Dantes never comes to life, his overweight is showing to bad effect, especially in the brief Château d'If scenes and whenever Dantes/Depardieu, in the wake of his revenge plan, tries to slip into the role of a priest or an English Lord, the result is ridiculous. Even worse, instead of creating an adequate film adaption of Dumas novel, the scriptwriters either omitted the best parts of the book or they followed the weaker chapters of the tale too closely, simply transferring it's sometimes overhanging twists and plots to the screen. Within six and a half hours of film, there is no introduction to the fate of Edmond Dantes, we never see his enemies build up the conspiracy against him, nor do we get more than a glimpse of his suffering in Château d'If and of his ever growing hatred. It is all left to a few laughable short flashbacks and memorizing dialog! As a result there is no real character build-up and no such thing as drama and suspense to unfold. Besides all, the filmmakers clumsy attempts of staying close to Dumas are finally put to shambles, since they opted for a completely different ending. To be fair, there are some visual delights: the period costumes look beautiful (so does Ornella Muti as Mercedes), several locations and sets, like those depicting the quays of Marseille or the narrow alleys of Rome, are exquisite – as if a painting of Delacroix had come to life. But those moments don't compensate for an otherwise boring and dull movie. Hollywoods 1934 version, featuring Robert Donat or the 2002 version with James Claviezel went for a much looser adaption of Dumas but nonetheless they gave the audience all that is missing here: emotions, drama, action and a hero, we are worried about.

Given the length (and hence the capacity) of this mini series, and after Kevin Reynold's far-off 2002 version, I was hoping to see a visual duplication of the original storyline. However the way the screenplay was written many of the most dramatic moments were taken out and replaced with almost indifferent narration. One example would be, in the book, when Abbé Faria reveals to Dantes how he was framed, even having been there for more than 10 times, I can always feel the shocking Dantes feels as depicted by Dumas. However, in the mini series, Abbé Faria did it almost like a weather man reporting it's going to be another sunny day tomorrow, and Dantes is like, "OK."Another big disappointment is Mr. Depardieu. He is a great actor. There is no question about that. But let's be straightforward - this just isn't his role. He is simply too physical and too outward for me to relate to the Count of Monte Cristo. If you ask me, Jereme Irons(10 years younger) would be the ideal actor. Also Depardieu's signature nose makes it almost like a joke for him to switch between the disguises. 8-)

This movie conforms to the book and manages to capture the true story. Revenge ... Girard Depardieu is wonderful and I have watched it twice (subtitles, no less!!) It is well worth the effort. Reading the book first was definitely helpful.