Review of "The Da Vinci Code"
THE DA VINCI CODE (2006)
Directed by Ron Howard
Written by Akiva Goldsmith, based on the novel by Dan Brown
Starring Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellan, Jean Reno, Alfred Molina and Paul Bettany
It’s been hard to avoid the huge and controversial best-selling novel "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown, and now here’s the blockbuster Hollywood adaptation. In Paris, an eminent curator is murdered in the Louvre by a strange monk named Silas (Bettany), a member of an organisation of the Catholic Church called Opus Dei. Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Hanks), lecturing in Paris, is called in to help the police with their enquiries. It turns out that he is the main suspect but Langdon manages to escape with the help of police cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Tautou), who is the granddaughter of the murdered man. The curator turns out to be one of four men guarding an important secret dating back thousands of years, and Langdon and Neveu, have to solve an ancient mystery involving powerful secret societies and the works of Leonardo Da Vinci, a secret which people are more than ready to kill for.
This film has been heavily attacked by Christians, art and religious historians as well as literary and film critics. To be fair, it is just a fun ride. It’s entertainment and for most of the time the film is a great deal of fun. There are a lot of diversions into art and religious theories, which are fascinating for those who are interested in that kind of thing, but may bore others who want the story to keep on moving. The film does suffer from bad pacing and, at nearly two and a half hours, it is overlong but there is enough to interest and entertain. The film is well-made although filled with irritating grainy flash-backs to illustrate the film’s theories, which are really distracting and unnecessary. Tom Hanks is an amiable lead as always, and Audrey Tautou is beautiful and sexy but does provide the film with a real emotional centre. Fans of the book will certainly enjoy the film, and no matter what you may make of the theories presented in the story, at least they might spark debate and interest. When all is said and done though, you’ll only find "The Da Vinci Code" in the Fiction section of the bookstore.
Five out of ten