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I didn’t have high hopes going into the theater, despite more or less enjoying the novel and that Tom Hanks, Akiva Goldsman and Ron Howard were once again collaborating, but for most of the two and a half hours The Da Vinci Code exceeded my expectations. And then it all came crashing down as the movie went wishywashy on Dan Brown’s core condemnation of the Catholic Church in a vain attempt to appease the mass market.
Well, maybe not completely in vain since the film has taken in over $170 million at the US box office since its release 17 days ago. Not chicken feed, the $77M opening weekend was by far the biggest of Howard’s or Hank’s careers.
Taking the knife to Brown’s allegations of centuries of suppression, murder and deceit of the true nature of Jesus’ relationship to Mary Magdalene didn’t help that much since their were people with banners and placards outside most theaters on opening weekend including the one at which we saw the film.
Not being a Christian, the interest for me was in whether the movie was as good a thriller as the novel, not always an easy task when most of the audience has read, or is at least largely familiar with, the novel. Like I said, for the most part it held up. Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Jean Reno, Alfred Molina, Paul Bettany and Ian McKellen are all very good actors and Howard and Goldsman know how to pace a film.
Code even has an innovative visual effect: when a character is recounting some historical episode (such as the Last Supper, a battle from the Crusades or the funeral of Isaac Newton) we see it recreated onscreen, transparently overlaid on top of the current scene. I don’t think this brief phrase really does it justice but I can’t think of a better one.
Where the filmmakers lost me, though, is a scene towards the end where Langdon and Neveu (Hanks and Tautou) discuss what the final revelation of the Priory of Scion’s mission means for Neveu. They added a speech where Hanks, much more of a father figure than I’d have expected, tells her that she can toss aside 2,000 years of struggle by many, many men and women and allow the terrible deeds (alleged by Brown) to pass into history.
not recommended
