{"id":46107,"date":"2025-01-09T00:56:20","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T05:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=46107"},"modified":"2025-01-09T00:56:20","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T05:56:20","slug":"the-count-of-monte-cristo-aka-le-comte-de-monte-cristo-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/09\/the-count-of-monte-cristo-aka-le-comte-de-monte-cristo-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"The Count of Monte-Cristo (aka Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) (2024)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A wrongfully accused man escapes prison after a decade and a half, finds his way to a new home and to revenge.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Based on the Alexandre Dumas novel and written and directed by Alexandre de La Patelli\u00e8re and Matthieu Delaporte, this new version of the story of Edmond Dantes clocks in at just under 3 hours, yes 3 hours and no it\u2019s not a mini-series, which unfortunately feels quite long. There is plenty here, but something is missing, something doesn\u2019t fully connect. The film isn\u2019t bad, but it feels like a film that could have been more than good, a film that could have been great and it seems to meander too or to get lost in the details while not going into any depths of the details. It\u2019s a hard to describe thing, it\u2019s like the film is both good and bland at the same time, like it\u2019s meant to be more but don\u2019t know in what way. The writing is decent, the direction is decent, but something is off storywise, perhaps it\u2019s a pacing issue, perhaps a writing issue, perhaps it\u2019s too glossy and expensive while not really feeling like the lead character cares all that much. Which leads us into the cast. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The cast here is there. Which may sound like an odd thing to say, but that\u2019s the most representative thing to say. While this reviewer is purposefully seeking for more French films (something not so easy in Southern California, outside of LA, oddly enough), this one didn\u2019t quite scratch the hitch. The performances here feel off and it\u2019s hard to put a finger on why. The lead here is played by Pierre Niney who does fine as the titular character\/Edmond Dantes (yes, spoiler, but this is a well-known and many times adapted story). At times he seems to almost nail it while at other times he seems to just not care. There is a blah-ness about his performance, or at least in how it comes off. Giving a more eye-catching and emotional performance is Ana\u00efs Demoustier as Merc\u00e9d\u00e8s Herrera. She steals more than a few scenes and really makes a positive impact on the enjoyment of the film. Vassili Schneider and Julien De Saint Jean, as Albert and Andrea respectively, do gives more than decent performances. Still, the majority of the cast feels like they are almost interchangeable or like they just don\u2019t care to be there or, worse, don\u2019t want to be there. Something is off in the performances so it may be due to direction, especially given how many of the performances feel off. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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On the positive side, the cinematography by Nicolas Bolduc is great. It\u2019s calculated, it\u2019s giving life to the story, and it keeps the viewer interested even with a known story that is not developing quite right. The visual work here is solid, and it makes the locations appealing and the characters look better. To be honest, the look of the film saves it and makes it so much more than it would be with more bland cinematography. The work here is great and helps the film greatly. The music by J\u00e9r\u00f4me Rebotier works quite well with the images and helps the story\u2019s emotions connect with the viewer.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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This new version of Le Comte de Monte-Cristo is one that has some much potential and falls flat on too many fronts to be a must see. The 3 hours runtime does not help as the story needs to either be cut down to a brisker pace or given more time to fully develop like in the book. Somehow, 3 hours is both too long and not long enough, the story feels odd here and like something is missing for most of the runtime. The performances are oftentimes too flat and not passionate enough with a handful of better performances that sadly do not save the film. The cinematography is beautiful however and the music works quite well, so not all is lost.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A wrongfully accused man escapes prison after a decade and a half, finds his way to a new home and to revenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[58,2515,302,367],"class_list":["post-46107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-action","tag-advemture","tag-drama","tag-foreign"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46108,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46107\/revisions\/46108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}