Apparently there are over 40 different adaptations of Dumas’ novel, so I haven’t even scratched the surface here. Anyway…here’s a brief comparison between these three lads, since these are the ones I’ve viewed so far.
The contenders:
The Count of Monte Cristo (2024 film)
The Count of Monte Cristo (2024 TV Series)
The Count of Monte Cristo (2002 film)
The Count of Monte Cristo’s a big favourite of mine. The book, that is. Alexandre Dumas’ book sits solidly in my top 3 books of all time, in fact. And since the successful novel was first serialised in 1844, there’s been plenty of time to adapt it (yes, I’m aware that ye olde film wasn’t a thing at that point in time. Come on now). The novel’s an absolute cracker imho, so much so that I talked about it in my extended project at sixth form, discussing its influence on literature and film like The Shawshank Redemption, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Oldboy and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Anyway, plot summary. Main dude’s about to marry the love of his life, bad guys get in the way, dude’s locked up unjustly for 15 years, wreaks terrible vengeance when he escapes. The actual novel is a bit of a chonk (coming in at roughly 600 pages, if I remember correctly), so it’s pretty difficult to get all the details in when it comes to the adaptation process. Anyway, I’ll make some comparisons between the three attempts down below. Knowledge of the book’s always helpful, but I’m willing to offer a bit of context too. Onwards.
– Best Abbe Faria
So. This guy is the guy that happens to be imprisoned near our main boy Edmond Dantes in prison. It’s only a coincidence that they meet in the first place, since Faria has been digging in the wrong direction to try and escape prison, ending up in Dante’s digs instead. Oops. Only several years wasted. Well, not wasted, because this dude teaches Dantes a lot, reveals the location of treasure, then acts as Dantes’ means of escape when an opportune moment arises. But, who’s the best?
2024 Film:
Meh. The weakest of the bunch. Partly down to this series’ pacing issues, which are pretty darn bad. I say series because this was released in the UK in three parts, but when I researched this I discovered it’s actually a chunky film. You’d have thought with that extensive running time you could fit in a lot more material, but somehow, no. Anyway. Not many vibes from this Faria, who doesn’t feature for long, and isn’t particularly compelling when he does. No dice. Desolée.
2024 TV Series:
Not getting much from this guy. Jeremy Irons puts in some effort, I won’t deny that, but there’s not enough pathos here for my liking. Still, Irons does some solid, earnest acting, and he still manages to leave an impact of sorts.
2002 Film:
On reflection, the other two didn’t stand much of a chance here. The Abbe in the 2002 version’s played by Richard Harris. Yeah, Dumbledore from the first 2 HP films. And his entrance into Dumas’ abode should just be a meme, by all rights. Whereas he appears in the above two through the side of Dantes’ wall, here the dude just yeets up through the stones on Dantes’ ground head first. The comedy here maybe wasn’t intentional, but it’s there wide and clear nonetheless. From that point on, Harris just adds so much more gravitas and aplomb to the wizened old character. There’s no competition in this area, lads.
– Best Edmund Dantes
The main man. As mentioned above.
2024 film:
Eh. Fine, I guess. A decent job by the actor, but not massively engaging, at least compared to the other two Dantes in this comparison. He speaks French, which is a plus (this is the only one of the three which is carried out in the OG language that the novel was written in, which is nice). But, y’know, I need more rizz, man. And you ain’t got enough.
2024 TV Series:
Here, however, we’ve got Sam Clafin as the main man. Now we’re talking. Plenty of rizz here, largely courtesy of Clafin’s performances as Finnick in the Hunger Games films. And he puts in a solid performance here as vengeful innocent out for revenge. I suppose my main subjective drawback here is that I can’t get some of his a-hole roles out of my head. Partly The Riot Club, but mostly The Nightingale. Oof, he’s a major league a-hole in that latter one. I guess the fact that I hate him so much in those roles is largely because those are strong, convincing performances? But anyway, that’s a slight bias which puts Clafin down the bench for me here.
2002 Film
I can’t say I know much of Jim Caviezel’s work outside of this film, but I can say he puts in a strong effort here. Plenty of moody, aggrieved stares, which I’m always a fan of, and a fair bit of rizz here too.
I’d say Clafin and Caviezel are about even here.
– Best Fernand Mondego
This here’s the bad guy. Sure, there are other bad dudes here and there, but Fernand’s the big bad that engineers Dantes’ false imprisonment and steals Dantes’ girl. Mr StealYourGirl, if you will (do you remember that meme? I do. And that’s what matters). And Mr FalselyImprisonYouBecauseIWantToBangMyCousin (yep, Ferdinand and Dantes’ beau Mercedes are cousins. Nice. Apparently that incest thing was accepted back then. Hmm). Except that title doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. And that was definitely never a meme. Anyway.
2024 Film:
Again, like Dantes in this version, Mondego just isn’t quite enigmatic enough. You don’t get that kind of seething hatred that you need to bolster the narrative and make Dantes want to screw him over. It’s just…kind of bland. As mentioned above, the pacing and swerves from the source material don’t exactly help, but still, this Ferdinand ain’t quite it.
2024 Series:
Certainly an improvement on the above. A Mondego that gets you more into the spirit of a ‘I want you to suffer for destroying the main guy’s life and stealing his wife/your cousin (hmm…)’ kind of vibe, for sure. A bit more conniving, and a bit more entertaining.
2002 Film:
Guy Pearce channels the evil dude in this flick, and he does a very decent job of it. It’s definitely a more theatrical interpretation than the others, but hey, I’ll go for that. More camp, more entertaining, and easier to lead into that kind of pantomime ‘ooh you’re bad and you know it’ kinda thing. It’s not subtle, but I like it.
I probably won’t do a comparison on Mercedes because she doesn’t pop up a whole lot, at least not enough to make as much of an impact as the other folks. Just thought you should know.
Best Adherence to Source Material
This one’s fun, because I don’t think any of them actually do a great job with this. Sure, Dumas’ text is rather chunky and yes, like any book, you’ve got to cut and chop stuff to keep your viewing audience (most of whom probably haven’t read the novel) engaged, but still.
2024 Film: Oof. Some major oofs on this one. Big oofs indeed. I’m not wholly against messing with the source material. Noah Hawley’s great at doing that (see: the TV series of Fargo, Legion and Alien: Earth), but this? Nah. Introducing a new character for no reason, messing around with character dynamics and completely butchering the ending? No sir, a decent adaptation this is not. Begone.
2024 TV Series: Good enough, but definitely shaky in places. It keeps the central revenge plot nice and strong, probably because that’s the main point of drama that’s going to grip the audience. Fair. Nonetheless, they do a shoddy bit of work with this character called Haydee (all of these seem too, for that matter) and they change the ending, AND they use the ending line, but not in the right way or at the right point. DISGUSTING. There are various other points I could make, but there’s no excuse for messing up the ending, as you’ve basically messed up the novel’s moral message. Gosh.
2002: While this does slightly mess around with Dumas’ work slightly, it does it in fun ways. Is the child that Mercedes and Fernand have actually sired by Dantes? No, there’s nothing in the book that suggests that. But hey, it would be cool if it did. Does the Abbe Faria kind of headbutt his way through Dantes’ brick floor rather than chisel into one of his side walls? No. But hey, this is all in the service of watchable, dramatic cinema, and I’ll heartily accept that.
I think the 2002 CoMC version takes the gong for me. Congrats.