“The Da Vinci Code” (Sony Pictures)
Behold the Critic Proof Film
Dan Brown’s THE DA VINCI CODE has topped best seller lists for a couple of years now, and has spawned imitators and derivative stories by the bucketsful. Now there is a movie version to add fuel to the fire of controversy the book raised. The film is too long and too dull to attract a large audience, but it doesn’t matter. This is a critic proof film and people are going to see it regardless of what their favorite critic or even their next door neighbor says. This is a “have to see” movie and it is going to make millions and millions of box office dollars.
Tom Hanks, woefully miscast, stars as Robert Langdon a Harvard educated symbolligist. While lecturing in Paris he is called to the Louvre to speak with police. A curator at the famed museum has been murdered and Langdon knew the man. Shortly after Langdon arrives at the death scene a young woman named Sophie (Audrey Tautou) also arrives. She tells Langdon he is in danger and must escape from the police. He does and soon they are traveling all over France looking for clues to the “Holy Grail.”
Close on their heels is Silas (Paul Bettany), a member of a secret order within the Catholic Church, who is determined to kill them both. So they not only have to evade the police, they have to stay clear of Silas. Everyone seems to want to learn the truth of the “grail” and either squelch it or publicize it.
In the book these events were clever and suspenseful. The book was a page-turner even if the reader didn’t agree with the theology being offered. In the movie the scenes are never suspenseful. Silas is a killer without a motive, and Langdon is a hero without the skills to be so. There is never any real suspense as to whether Sophie and Langdon will be harmed. They might as well be super heroes for the way they can avoid danger.
Hanks is best in roles where he can be witty and charming, but not in a role where he has to be Indiana Jones Junior. He just doesn’t fill the bill of an action hero. Then there is the problem with him and Tautou. There is no romance between them in the script, but sadly there is no charisma there either. They are like two strangers going through an adventure with no care or concern for the other person.
Ian McKellen does add some spark as Sir Leigh Teabing, an old friend of Langdon’s. McKellen seems to be enjoying his role, something Hanks and Tautou do not. Bettany is all pain and suffering as Silas, while Jean Reno is drab and dull as the head policeman hunting them
The film is rated PG-13 and that is a very lenient rating as the movie has nudity, violence and profanity.
Close to fifty million people have supposedly read THE DA VINCI CODE. If just those people show up to see the film it will be a blockbuster. Add in those who have just heard about the book and you have a huge potential audience. And the critics aren’t going to change anything. Word of the movie being good, bad or awful are just words. People are going to want to see and judge this film for themselves and maybe that is a good thing after all.
I scored “The Da Vinci Code” an undecipherable 4 out of 10.
