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"THE DA VINCI CODE"(2006)
Perhaps it is impossible to adapt this fascinating, complex story by author Dan Brown to the silver screen. Great "reads"
hardly ever translate well into movies as the imaginative mind can picture a story far better than any cameraman. But too
much money was there for Hollywood to avoid passing up translating his novel into a potential summer blockbuster.
Director Ron Howard and screenplay author Akiva Goldsman have done the nearly impossible, which is to reduce a thrilling
best seller into a movie that at best is only competently done and at worst verges on being boring. In between the story races
along as if each scene were timed by a metronome. Every five minutes or so a new puzzle or a new twist is introduced with
the two protagonists quickly being carried into the next scene.
Those who have not read the book will be confused by the nearly nonstop plot and locale shifts crammed into this film.
Those who have read the book will compliment the movie for being generally faithful to the story with the exception that most
of the excitement, all of the suspense, and much of the passion in the book have been bled from the film. Instead of a true
work of art, we are left with a childish "paint by the numbers" cinematic landscape.
While Tom Hanks is a wonderful actor with an "every man" persona that blends well into a lot of roles, especially
light roles, here he is, sad to say, horribly miscast. I will grant that he can act, but the man with his face looking as
if it were sculpted from putty has no charisma whatsoever. As much as Hanks tries, he has little power or intensity, and this
film suffers greatly as a result.
I couldn't believe it when I first heard that Hanks had been picked to play the role of Robert Langdon, but then I was
equally surprised when I heard that Ron Howard would be directing this movie. This was almost like a "two-fer,"
since hiring the one usually gets you the other. Howard and Hanks have a long term working relationship that has been by and
large very successful, but neither this director nor this actor should ever have been selected to do this movie.
Worse yet, Hanks drags down costar Audrey Tautoo, who is perfect for her role. She is given little to do in the film other
than play off Hanks' bland persona, and that is not much of a challenge. The result is that her sparkling personality and
her charisma disappear into his vacuum.
While he did lack some of the relentless menace that was exhibited in the novel, Paul Bettany with his albino look was
nicely cast as a rather smallish Silas, the murderous Opus Dei monk. Ian McKellen also gave a nice turn as the enigmatic and
eventually duplicitous Sir Leigh Teabing.
Jean Reno was well cast as the Parisian policeman, Captain Fache, a man with Javier-like tendencies. We come to find out
that he is also a member of Opus Dei and is more than willing to do the bidding of Bishop Aringarosa (Alfred Molina), the
man who heads a secret Catholic committee that is charged with destroying all evidence concerning the latter day feminine
expression of the Holy Grail.
Even if the novel by Dan Brown is filled with religious gobbledegook that doesn't stand up under serious scrutiny, it
is still a wonderful read. This quintessential page turner became an international best seller in spite of the fact that it
was more or less panned by the book critics.
Now the film critics have their say, and their reviews haven't been much better. I will have to admit that this is the
movie that I had most looked forward to seeing this summer, and I am quite disappointed. The buildup for this film as the
event of the late spring was masterful, but the reality was a severe letdown.
Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed seeing the movie, once, but that was only while I was in the theater. After I left the theater
and thought about what I had just seen, I was left with the distinct impression that it could have been so much more, so much
better. I wouldn't have missed seeing this movie for the world, but now that I have seen it, I do not feel the need ever to
see it again.
No doubt this film will be hyped for some future network premier which I may glance at for background entertainment, but
this will definitely not be a film for my DVD library.
A movie review by Carl Zapffe (06/07/06)
Grade: B, Recommended? A neutral recommendation.
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