Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Captivating movie !

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I was fooled into buying this DVD set after I saw the high ratings on IMDb, but after one hour of watching I already regretted my decision.The film/mini series has a running time of about 6 hours, but after already 45 mins you have already seen (or rather NOT seen, and I kid you not!) : Dantes relation to his wife and family, his background, the conspiracy, his 18 year "suffering" in Château D'if, his relationship with Abbe Faria, his escape, the treasure on Monte Christo and his return to the mainland as "Count". All that in 45 mins! And it is as rushed and stupid as it sounds. Of course everything of the above happens so fast that you can barely see whats going on nor would anyone without background knowledge understand what is going on.Who is this Dantes? Who is his wife? Why is he imprisoned again? What was the conspiracy against him? Who are the traitors/bad guys? (you see them for about 10 secs!) Who is this Abbe? What is his relationship to Dantes and why does he tell him about the treasure? And so on. People who have not read the book will have a hard time following the plot here.You can imagine I was shaking my head constantly and was wondering with what they were intending to fill the other 5 hours. Answer : With not much. Talk, talk, talk and no action. They had 6 hours but wasted the most interesting parts of the story in the first 45 mins. Unbelievable. The "revenge" part in the last 5 hours is (of course) very drawn out and not very interesting.Depadieu is a fine actor, but miscast as the hero. You just need to see his body after so called "18 years in prison with no food". I wonder what they put into that soup there?

There have been numerous attempts to bring Dumas classic novel of romance, betrayal and revenge to the screen. This big budgeted french TV Mini Series rises high hopes but fails miserably. The producers relied heavily on the stardom of their principal actor Gerard Depardieu (1900, Greencard) and on what they thought was a script, true to the book (that is to the second half of the novel only). Sadly, neither the casting nor the script works for the film. At first, Depardieu, who was a perfect choice for the highly entertaining "Cyrano de Bergerac" years before, is a complete miscast here. His impersonation of Edmond Dantes never comes to life, his overweight is showing to bad effect, especially in the brief Château d'If scenes and whenever Dantes/Depardieu, in the wake of his revenge plan, tries to slip into the role of a priest or an English Lord, the result is ridiculous. Even worse, instead of creating an adequate film adaption of Dumas novel, the scriptwriters either omitted the best parts of the book or they followed the weaker chapters of the tale too closely, simply transferring it's sometimes overhanging twists and plots to the screen. Within six and a half hours of film, there is no introduction to the fate of Edmond Dantes, we never see his enemies build up the conspiracy against him, nor do we get more than a glimpse of his suffering in Château d'If and of his ever growing hatred. It is all left to a few laughable short flashbacks and memorizing dialog! As a result there is no real character build-up and no such thing as drama and suspense to unfold. Besides all, the filmmakers clumsy attempts of staying close to Dumas are finally put to shambles, since they opted for a completely different ending. To be fair, there are some visual delights: the period costumes look beautiful (so does Ornella Muti as Mercedes), several locations and sets, like those depicting the quays of Marseille or the narrow alleys of Rome, are exquisite – as if a painting of Delacroix had come to life. But those moments don't compensate for an otherwise boring and dull movie. Hollywoods 1934 version, featuring Robert Donat or the 2002 version with James Claviezel went for a much looser adaption of Dumas but nonetheless they gave the audience all that is missing here: emotions, drama, action and a hero, we are worried about.

I loved the book, read it "to pieces". Yes the adaptation is slow-paced and a number of stories have been left out, but in all reality, the selection made is excellent. The atmosphere is great, it is truly romantic and the chosen stories are excellent. Unfortunately there are a lot of deviations from the book, which results in a (in my taste) "cheesy" ending. Overall however, there is a lot to enjoy. The soundtrack is excellent and full of subtle details. Spoiler Alert: When Heloise enters Valentines room for the second time, to check whether she had been successful, she hums a melody (not in the book). This melody is very well chosen: The theme is the slow movement of Schubert's String Quartet No 14 "Der Tod und das Mädchen" (Death and the Maiden).

I first saw this at christmas about 3 years ago. I was ill in bed with flu and just wanted to die. I got up for a change of scenery and put the tv on. This was on. I spent the next three days setting the alarm for 3pm and getting up out of my death bed to watch this compelling series. I then found it on DVD, and bought it (the book was included and I have been reading that too). THe story is compelling and the characterisations by all of the actors are amazing. THe detail is fantastic and even though I don't normally "do subtitles" I have watched the entire series several times, finding something new and even more entertaining each time. I would recommend it to anyone - this would make kids WANT to learn french in school so they could watch it without the subtitles.