We watched “The Count of Monte Cristo” this weekend.

That guy had problems.

And the movie is like “Pollyanna” compared to the book. In the book, he has problems like you don’t even know.

“God will give me justice,” is the mantra of the wrongfully accused throughout the movie. The tortured, the starved and the wrongfully accused: God will give me justice.

Our hero, the faux-Conte, lost faith in that mantra quite quickly.

Fair enough.

We wondered, throughout the faux-Conte’s ordeal, about our own 21st-century justice-based mantras. That the right thing to do, the healthy thing, is to let it go. That we should find peace with whatever the injustice may be and forgive it. Surely the offender will live a sad life, trapped in a life that is devoid of love, and that will be his punishment.

Reminds me of that time I vandalized my ex-boyfriend’s car. That was all about peace, love, forgiveness, and letting it go. All over his tires.

We wondered about our justice system and the fine line between justice and vengeance, and who draws it, and if there’s a difference at all, and either way, who is entitled to deliver or exact it. We wondered about the difference between “letting it go” and “getting walked on.” Surely there are times, we thought, when the Lord gives us the privilege of enacting a bit of vengeance, because even She understands that you have to stand up for yourself.

Which is not to say that I should have vandalized my ex-boyfriend’s car. That was probably a scooch over the top.

But just a scooch.

So we wondered: When is it that vengeance is ours for the taking?

When is it ok, we wondered, to pull our best Conte de Monte Cristo?*That’s a line from “Count of Monte Cristo,” by the Noisettes.