3 months ago
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The Count of Monte Cristo ★★★
Calling a series “old-fashioned” can suggest no end of judgments. It could mean a stately pacing, a welcome use of practical production skills, or an emotional scale that clearly delineates between good and evil. The interpretations, whether positive or negative, are numerous. Old-fashioned might even reference a belief you need a touch of light relief from a supporting character. And then there’s “old” itself to define. Are the 1930s or the 1980s considered old?
Sam Claflin as Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte Cristo.
So when I describe this latest adaptation of the grand 19th-century adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas as old-fashioned, let me be clear which of the above I’m signalling. It’s all of them! A French-Italian co-production in English language, shot around the Mediterranean with British stars and a veteran Danish director in Bille August, this edition of The Count of Monte Cristo is willing – whether out of cautious expediency or virtuous self-belief is unclear – to offer viewers a little of everything.
It’s worth noting that the story can handle that ungainly mix. Initially written by Dumas as a newspaper serial between 1844 and 1846, the best-selling book is full of flourishes and plotting, grand gestures and broken hearts. Make no mistake, the larger-than-life Dumas was a crowd-pleaser (his Instagram would have been wild). He gives us a virtuous young sailor who is falsely imprisoned without trial, who loses the love of his life and 15 years of freedom, before escaping, retrieving a treasure, and plotting his detailed revenge.
Jeremy Irons as Abbé Faria in The Count of Monte Cristo.
In this year’s adaptation – there was a French movie in 2024 – it’s Sam Claflin who plays the tormented Edmond Dantès, a sailor whose successes at sea and on land infuriate his rivals. Danglars (Blake Ritson) is jealous over losing out on a promotion, while Fernand Mondego (Harry Taurasi) hungers for Edmond’s fiancee, Mercédès Herrera (Ana Girardot). With Napoleon’s 1815 escape from Elba as the backdrop, the pair use anonymous political accusations to get Edmond arrested, which are exacerbated by a compromised Marseilles magistrate, Gérard de Villefort (Mikkel Boes Folsgaard).
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As in the 1970s music melodrama Daisy Jones and the Six, Claflin is too old for his character’s youthful origins. He’s better equipped, physically and mentally, for the wiry, embittered survivor who eventually resurfaces as the wealthy titular aristocrat. The further the story progresses, the more at ease Claflin as is Edmond. Helping him get there is Jeremy Irons, who plays his fellow inmate, the Abbé Faria. The renegade cleric connects their cells by chiselled tunnel and proceeds to inspire, educate, and eventually fund Edmond.
August, whose feature Pelle the Conqueror won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, keeps this sizeable production moving forward. It’s not always subtle, and the dialogue can be too explicitly descriptive, but there’s a momentum that alternates between, “What happens next?” and “Did they really just do that?” Frankly, there are worse places for a show to be, and the production values, whether using Malta as a location or studio re-creations of Parisian high society in the 1830s, are first-rate.
At its bedrock, The Count of Monte Cristo is about the value of hope and the hunger for revenge. Is the only way Edmond can survive what he’s experienced to destroy others? Like every screen adaptation of the book (there have been about 50), it trims and rearranges the Parisian second half, which juggles a raft of new characters. It’s a framework you can build out in numerous ways. This one opts for the sturdy and righteous. That’s perfectly acceptable.
The Count of Monte Cristo premieres at 8.30pm on December 13 on SBS Viceland and SBS On Demand.
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