Le Comte de Monte Cristo (2024)

The (mis-)adventures of Edmond Dantès belong to my favorite stories of all time. So when I heard that the French have made a new adaptation of the classic by Alexandre Dumas, I needed to see it.

The directors Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière expectedly decided to change some things from the book. They merged some characters into one and left some storylines and persons entirely out of the movie. This will not sit well with everyone. I consider myself a fan of the book and I found most changes acceptable. Examples of changes include:

  • Noirtier de Villefort and Bertuccio got replaced by Angèle, Villeforts sister.
  • The unwanted child of Villefort is named André (by Angèle) and he is not particularly cruel, unlike Benedetto in the book. He has no told criminal past and plays a less important role compared to Benedetto in the book.
  • Valentine and Maximilian are not in the movie and have no replacement.
  • Luigi Vampa and his storyline is omitted.
  • Franz d’Épinay is omitted.
  • The ending is altered significantly. Fernand no longer commits suicide and Albert does not flee with Mercédès.

Most changes kept the spirit of the book while simplifying the plot a bit for the new medium. The one thing which really felt unnecessary to me was the altered ending. In general, the plot preserves the original story while having a bit less depth. This is certainly a minus, but forgivable given the circumstances.

One thing which stood out to me were the visuals. I had not the highest expectations in this regard but was blown away by the cinematography in places. The movie makes many scenes from the book come beautifully alive. The soundtrack and audio felt solid too.

If you know the story already and are a fan, this is a must watch. Also, this movie could be a good entry for people which have not read the book but want to know what it’s about without reading 1200 pages or so. The movie can easily hold its own as a standalone adventure film. It has not many lengths despite its three hour runtime. Only to book evangelists I would not recommend it because of the mentioned alterations.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
Recommendability: 7.0/10.0