The Da Vinci Code Review

May 19, 2006 2:14 PM
by [email]

My friend might have put it best when she said: “Well, that was a nice reminder of the book.”

I’m going to be honest- I haven’t read “The Da Vinci Code” (or, more accurately, I started and wasn’t really into it). But regardless of personal interest, I’d have to have been literally living underground to be oblivious - pardon the cliché - to the pop culture phenomenon that has swept the country since Dan Brown’s “Angels and Demons” follow up hit bookstores and bestseller lists.

So on to Ron Howard’s movie version, which I saw with fresh eyes and attempted objectivity. For the first hour or so I vacillated between disturbed and bored, as the murderous Albino monk, Silas (Paul Bettany) tortured himself in a Christ-like fashion (Bettany gives a terrific performance, but talk about suffering for art), and Tom Hanks, as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, puzzled over the grotesque death of the Louvre’s renowned curator.

Audrey Tautou, appealing as Sophie Neveu, a French cryptologist, was also puzzling. Since I hadn’t read the book, I thought she was just window dressing.

Thankfully, Ian McKellen showed up in the guise of the ambiguous Leigh Teabing, exuding a bit of Machiavellian mischief that was just what the doctor ordered (or what this viewer needed). His performance, however hammy, gives the film a semblance of personality, which made less-than-inventive proceedings watch-able.

The movie’s second act is as engaging as it is run-of-the-mill, with palatable chase sequences, unchallenging intrigue, and some melodramatic flashbacks: a young Robert falls down a well; Sophie re-imagines the death of her parents.

This brings me back to Sophie, who isn’t, in fact, just a pretty set prop, but a key player in the heavily religious plot twists (secret societies and painterly clues unravel ploddingly). I won’t give away the ending for the one or two readers/viewers who don’t know it, but I will say that the film is never more than nice to look at or easy to digest.

In the hands of a lesser director mediocrity might be understandable, but Ron Howard helmed “Splash,” “Apollo 13” and “A Beautiful Mind,” just to name a few. Why, then, did I leave the theater pondering the underwhelming feeling that, after nearly 2 ½ hours, the thing I most appreciated was free popcorn?

The performers (notably Bettany, who has one heart wrenching moment with Alfred Molina’s manipulative Bishop Aringarosa) do their absolute best with a serviceable screenplay, penned by frequent Howard collaborator and “Mind” Oscar winner Avika Goldsman. Goldsman almost always elevates mainstream movies with people who are real and flawed, so I had to remind myself that this is “The Da Vinci Code” and the plot is complex enough without characters getting in its way.

Grade: B-
By Jenny S. Halper