The Count of Monte Cristo review: 'indecently spectacular' adaptation

Pierre Niney as the Count of Monte Cristo

(Image credit: Lifestyle Pictures / Alamy Stock Photo)

"A strange thing happened at this summer's Cannes film festival," said Kevin Maher in The Times. While all eyes were glued to the big Hollywood offerings, the real attraction turned out to be this "indecently spectacular" film – a French adaptation of Alexandre Dumas's 19th-century adventure novel that cost £35m but "looks like a $200m Tinseltown barnstormer".

Made by the team that brought us the recent hit adaptation of "The Three Musketeers", it stars Pierre Niney as Edmond Dantès, the young sailor who's falsely accused of treachery, and locked up in a grim island prison. Years later, he escapes, finds some hidden treasure and – as the rich and powerful Count of Monte Cristo – seeks vengeance on the friends who betrayed him. The makers of the film were "smart and confident enough" to amplify the "obvious superhero echoes" of Edmond's transformation into the suave, swashbuckling Count, but have cleverly avoided making the chief baddie "a cartoon villain".