Genres: Drama | Mystery | Thriller Countries: USA Actors: Tom Hanks Robert Langdon Audrey Tautou Sophie Neveu Ian McKellen Sir Leigh Teabing Paul Bettany Silas Jean Reno Bezu Fache Etienne Chicot Lt. Collet Alfred Molina Bishop Aringarosa Clive Carter Police Captain Biggin Hill Seth Gabel Cleric Daisy Doidge-Hill Sophie Age 8 Directors: Ron Howard IMDB Rating: 6 out of 10 (75572 votes)

Storyline

Taglines: 

Plot Summary: 

on Howard and Tom Hanks miss the boat with this uninspired and flat adaptation of Dan Brown’s controversial bestseller, The Da Vinci Code. It’s sad (even disturbing) to admit but those who’ve banned the film may actually have done potential ticket buyers a favor.

Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman stuck closely to Brown’s story, adapting the author’s dialogue-driven plot into a talky movie that, when words fail, relies on reenactments of historical events to get the key points across. Brown’s novel was a real page-turner. Although not the most well-written book ever to land on bestseller lists, it still offered readers an entertaining journey to go on with the story’s fictional characters. Somehow that fun journey has been translated to the screen as a dreary, colorless, and plodding adventure.

Both the novel and the film begin with the murder of Louvre director Jacques Sauniere at the hands of a monk who belongs to the Catholic organization known as Opus Dei. In Paris on a book tour, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Hanks) is brought into the case by Detective Bezu Fache (Jean Reno) who wants the renowned scholar to decipher a baffling clue left on and around Sauniere’s body by the deceased man himself.

Langdon’s almost immediately joined at the scene of the crime by French cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), Sauniere’s estranged granddaughter. It’s soon revealed that Sauniere was a member of a secret society known as the Priory of Sion, a group charged with guarding a powerful secret about Jesus and Mary Magdalene’s relationship and its connection to the mysteries of the Holy Grail. Langdon and Neveu must follow the trail of clues left by Sauniere in order to save the group’s precious secret from being lost forever.

The Robert Langdon character is also noticeably different from the way Brown wrote him (and we’re not just talking about the character’s physical presence or Hanks’ bizarre hairstyle). The film’s Langdon is more of a skeptic than he is in the book. A portion of his backbone’s been removed in the film adaptation, and he all but pooh-poohs some of Sir Leigh Teabing’s (Langdon’s friend and a renowned Grail expert) ideas instead of helping to fill in the blanks. The narrative also suffers from the failure to mention Langdon’s upcoming book, which is what connects Langdon to the murdered director of the Louvre and the secretive Priory of Sion.

Brown’s book was heavy on action, a real thrill ride with the two lead characters working as a team to decipher a series of clues and anagrams that ultimately lead them to the book’s version of the truth about the Holy Grail. The Da Vinci Code movie never captures that same sense of adventure. Langdon was like a kid in the candy store in the book, albeit under dangerous circumstances with people out to kill him. But in the movie he’s joyless and never exhibits any excitement while on the hunt for the whereabouts of the Holy Grail.

A dialogue-driven film such as this needs to be punched up; it needs the actors to run with the characters instead of just reciting the script. Instead Hanks delivers a performance that ranks as the most one-dimensional of his critically acclaimed career. The spark’s noticeably missing from this two-time Oscar winner’s performance. Audrey Tautou (adorable in Amelie) is good but never connects as the French cryptologist and granddaughter of a murder victim. There are even times, unfortunately, when her dialogue is difficult if not impossible to understand.

I enjoyed Dan Brown’s book. It’s not the next best thing to chocolate, but it’s an engaging enough read. The movie, however, never engages the audience. Although the film runs just under 2 ½ hours, by the time the credits roll you’ll swear you’ve invested at least four sitting through this tediously slow adaptation of Brown’s story.

Rebecca Murray
Hollywood Movies Guide

Plot Keywords: 

Downloads