(2002) In 1814 two Frenchmen on the Pharaon off the coast of Elba, where Napoleon Bonaparte is held prisoner by the English, go ashore to request assistance for their captain, who is sick with brain fever. As they fight off the British dragoons, the former emperor comes to their rescue, permitting his physician to attend to Capt Reynaud.

In secret Napoleon hands the second mate, Edmond Dantes (James Caviezel), a letter, which is not to be made known to his friend Fernand Mondego (Guy Pearce), to be delivered to Monsieur Clarion in Marseilles. As the two men depart, leaving behind the corpse of their captain, Napoleon remarks to himself: "Kings and pawns … Emperors and fools."

Soon after the Pharaon's arrival in the port of Marseilles, the merchant ship's owner Monsieur Morrell promotes Edmond over the first mate Danglars (Albie Woodington) to captain the ship for his courageous effort at saving the Pharaon's deceased captain; this good fortune makes possible Edmond's no longer having to wait an expected two years to wed the beautiful Mercedes Iquanada (Dagmara Dominczyk), whom Fernand, the son of a count, covets.

Edmond's brief happiness is promptly dashed when he's arrested for accepting treasonous correspondence, and though the chief magistrate J.F. Villefort (James Frain) agrees with Edmond that he's merely "foolish and innocent," the young man is sent off to Chateau d'If, a penal isle. He'd been double crossed by Danglars and Fernand because, as the latter tells Edmond: "you're the son of a clerk, and I'm not supposed to want to be you."

A classic tale of betrayal and revenge (of which there are numerous movie versions) was adapted by screenwriter Jay Wolpert from the novel by Alexandre Dumas père and directed by Kevin Reynolds - involving swordplay, a chess piece, a string wound around a finger as a ring of promise - in which "God is everything."

Upon his arrival at the prison, Edmond pleads his innocence to the warden, Armand Dorleac (Michael Wincott), who readily agrees: "Chateau d'If is where they put the one's they're ashamed of." Nevertheless, Dorleac lashes Edmond's back on the first day and on each anniversary of his arrival for the next 13 years, telling the pious prisoner, who scrapes "God will give me justice" into his cell wall: "You ask for help, and I'll stop the moment he shows up."

Meanwhile, Edmond's fiancée Mercedes, after receiving a letter informing her of Dantes's execution for an additional crime of murder, marries Fernand; Villefort's father, a former colonel and loyalist to the emperor, says to his son that "Treason is a matter of dates," preceding Napoleon's escape from Elba.

Emerging through Edmond's cell's floor, having spent five years of his eleven years of incarceration digging in the wrong direction, Abbé Faria (Richard Harris) offers to teach the illiterate Dantes how to read and write, economics, mathematics, and science, along with skills at weaponry (speed of hand and mind defeats an opponent's strength) in exchange for helping dig a tunnel in the opposite direction. Cautioning Edmond, from whose heart God has faded, replaced by a vow of vengeance, against committing the crime for which he's been imprisoned, the priest also reveals the location of Spada's treasure.

After his escape, Edmond, renamed Zatarra ("driftwood"), becomes a member of Luigi Vampa's crew of thieves and smugglers; his act of mercy, sparing the life of Jacopo (Luis Guzmán), earns him a friend for life. His heart hardened, the Count of Monte Cristo dismisses Jacopo's recommendation to "Take what you have won" and enjoy the newfound wealth; instead, wanting to know who gained from the lie that imprisoned him and determined to make those who persecuted him "suffer as I have suffered," he says: "Death is too good for them."

Danglars has taken over Morrell's shipping business in Marseilles; residing in Paris, Villefort has become chief prosecutor; also in the French capital, Fernand and Mercedes are now Count and Countess Mondego with their 16-year-old sole heir, Albert (Henry Cavil). Confronted by Mercedes with proof of her unwavering love and devotion, Dantes exclaims: "Don't rob me of my hate!"

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Copyright © 2011 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
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