Good stuff from dang near everyone. Could have been longer, though.
Tom Hanks- Robert Langdon
Audrey Tatou- Sophie Neveu
Ian McKellen- Sir Leigh Teabing
Jean Reno- Captain Fache
Paul Bettany- Silas
Alfred Molina- Bishop Aringarosa
Jurgen Prochnow- Andre Vernet
Directed by Ron Howard
Screenplay by Akiva Goldsman, based on the novel by Dan Brown
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Rated PG-13 for disturbing images, violence, some nudity, thematic material, brief drug references and sexual content
Runtime- 149 minutes
Website: http://www.sodarktheconofman.com
Ron Howard's flick "The DaVinci Code," based on the novel of the same name by Dan Brown (and, yeah, like you all didn't know that), is basically a good movie with strong performances and a very muddled story that wouldn't be at all appealing if it wasn't for the strong performances. While this reviewer hasn't read the entire novel (it's on the "to read" pile with a bookmark in it. This reviewer started reading the book, but then got sidetracked by two other books. He hopes to start up again soon), even if you haven't read it you get the feeling while watching the movie adaptation that we're only getting the bare bones aspects of the entire story. Which, of course, is what adaptations of novels are supposed to be like anyway. What we do get, while somewhat skimpy (the movie is two and half hours long and you still want more info at the end) is good enough.
The story starts out simple enough. Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (a very cool looking Tom Hanks) is giving a speech about something or another (he's signing copies of his new book after the lecture) when he's asked by Captain Fache of the French police to come to the Louvre Museum to help decipher weird symbols left at a bloody crime scene. A man has been murdered, a man that we find out soon was going to meet with Langdon about something earlier in the night. This man is also an employee of the museum, a curator or something (see how little this reviewer was able to pick up on that?). Fache immediately suspects that Langdon was the one who did it (we know he didn't since we saw at the beginning of the flick that it was, in fact, a weird beard homicidal albino monk named Silas, played by Paul Bettany, who shot the old man) and tries to arrest him. But Langdon, with the help of sympathetic French policewoman Sophie Neveu (Aundrey Tautou) manage to escape and run around Paris trying to figure out what all of those symbols left on the museum man's body, and in the museum, meant. A massive conspiracy is soon revealed, with a renegade faction within the conservative Catholic faction known as Opus Dei somehow involved. And, basically, for the rest of the movie it's a race against time to figure out what the heck is going on all the while evading the French police. And the secret? Well, it is pretty big, if you sit and think about it.
Tom Hanks is excellent as the symbologist Robert Langdon. He's sullen, intelligent, and bewildered at what the heck is going on. He's afraid of closed in spaces and, while being an "evil" college professor type, is the kind of every man hero that you want to see make it to the end alive. Hanks looks weird with long hair, too. His performance is never over the top. He's even good at relaying massive amounts of arcane back story on the historical implications of what is transpiring. Not as good as Ian McKellen, but no one is as good as that. Audrey Tautou does a good job as the female lead Sophie. How she ends up fitting into the overall story is a bit, well, "forced" considering it just seems way too convenient, but she does well enough. Ian McKellen is excellent, as usual, as an alternative history type guy when it comes to the Bible. An Englishman living in France for some reason. He's a "cripple," using two canes, fabulously rich, and an expert at all things Mary Magdalene. He also gets the best line of the flick, "Never trust the French" (no offense to the French, but it is a great line). Jean Reno is good, too, as the French cop with an ulterior agenda. He's the bad butt Reno here, and the man can kick butt with the best of them. Paul Bettany, as Silas, is good but not sufficiently terrifying. He's a whack job, yeah, a total lunatic, but he just doesn't give you much in the way of terror. He should have been "whiter." Although the self whipping scenes are pretty brutal. And that's way more male nudity than I needed to see. Alfred Molina, as the Bishop Aringarosa, is a bit of a letdown since he isn't given much to do besides wear a Bishop outfit and grimace every now and then. He ain't Doc Ock here. But what he does get to do he does well enough. Jurgen Prochnow, as the safe deposit box bank guy, gets to be the real nasty in the flick. If only he were a tad younger he could have played Silas and scared the crap out of us.
The movie could have had a slightly more exciting opening. A little more suspense in the chase between the albino monk and the museum man would have helped. The whole police dragnet didn't seem big enough. You'd think that a brutal murder inside a Paris landmark like the Louvre would have necessitated a much larger police search after Langdon escaped. Even if Jean Reno's Fache is the ranking cop in the area, still, you'd think they'd have SWAT teams running around looking for Langdon. Why exactly is Ian McKellen living in France? And what the heck is with all of the Opus Dei controversy? This reviewer will reveal a bit of a spoiler here in saying that the bad guys in the flick are not Opus Dei. Sure, they may belong to Opus Dei, but the real bad guys are the equivalent of an Opus Dei within Opus Dei. They don't seem to answer to anyone. The Pope isn't pulling any strings here, either. It's just a shadow organization doing bad stuff. It might as well be called the Syndicate or the Operation. Maybe there's more of a "It's Opus Dei! They're evil!" kind of thing in the novel, but in the movie, Opus Dei ain't the bad guy. So, please, everyone calm down.
The movie also reminds you a bit of Oliver Stone's "JFK" in use of flashbacks and voice over to tell the story. Its' much quicker than "JFK," but you certainly do notice things.
You should definitely go see it. It's a cultural milestone, a world wide phenomena, and you should at least be aware of it. If you've already read the novel it will probably help you in knowing what the heck is going on. But if you haven't, you'll be able to follow along well enough.
Good for Tom Hanks, too. He needs to do more movies like this. And Ron Howard does, too.
Go see it. You'll probably enjoy it.
The 411: “The DaVinci Code” is a pretty good thriller that will necessitate repeated viewings so you can pick up on everything. The performances are good, they help keep things interesting, even when the story gets bogged down. It could have used more time, though.
