The Count of Monte Cristo ★★★½

Hot on the heels of the latest adaptations of The Three Musketeers comes another French retelling of a classic adventure story.

The Count of Monte Cristo was the most expensive French production of 2024 and every euro can be seen on the screen.

It’s a lavish production with the kind of attention to detail in set design, costuming, hair and make-up that you would expect to properly capture the time and place of Alexander Dumas’ 1844 novel.

The faithfully adapted script is by the writers of the two aforementioned Three Musketeers’ films, Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, who have also taken on the direction.

The versatile Pierre Niney leads an expansive cast as Dumas’ hero Edmond Dantès.

The film starts in spectacular fashion with a ship afire in the Mediterranean Sea in 1815 and Dantès defying orders to rescue a woman from the Mediterranean Sea.

The woman, Angèle, carries a letter from the exiled Napoleon, a potentially treasonous act.

Edmond is promoted to captain his own ship and returns home to Marseille to share and his fiancée, Mercédès Herrera.

But her cousin, Fernand de Morcerf, whom Dantes thought was a friend, conspires with the city’s deputy prosecutor to frame Dantes so he can have Mercedes for himself.

Those French.

The plot thickens with the prosecutor, Gérard de Villefort, wanting to get rid of Mercedes for his own personal reasons.

Edmond is eventually imprisoned in the notorious Château d’If, where he meets a fellow inmate Abbé Faria, who educates him in languages, science and culture over eight years.

Faria also reveals to Edmond the location of treasure on the island of Monte Cristo. Edmond joins him in planning a daring escape and, once freed, intends to find the treasure, regain his love and take vengeance.

There is a lot of plot that stretches to almost a three-hour running time which will test some viewers.

But others will revel in the sweeping romance and adventure shot with style.

Beautifully made but, overall, the time taken to painstakingly tell Edmond’s story could have been less.

The suspension of disbelief required to accept nobody seems to recognise Edmond in his new guise as the Count is also a factor.

Watched at the cinema.