Pursuit, Becoming Hotter.

Rating: 6/10 (17 September 2017)

Tom Hanks carries on in his role as a Harvard symbologist. This time he's called to the Vatican because of threats received from an anti-clerical group called the Illuminati -- revenge for the way the church mistreated the Illuminati hundreds of years ago, driving them underground and almost exterminating them. (Kids, the Vatican is an independent city with its own police force and a staff of Swiss mercenary guards and is in the middle of Rome, which in turn is in the middle of a European country called Italy.) The Pope has just died and the city, waiting for the next Pope to be chosen, is in a tumult of anticipation, waving flags, setting of fireworks, punching each other out, and choking the grounds of St. Peter's. It's in this disorderly milieu that Hanks is asked to find and disable one of those ticking time bombs set by the Illuminati. The Illuminati have also kidnapped four cardinals from the Vatican and will kill one per hour until five hours later, when the anti-matter bomb will go off with the biggest bang known to man, beast, or celluloid. The device is hidden somewhere on the grounds of the Vatican itself -- maybe.
Then it gets really twisted and turns into two or three plot threads. Will Hanks exchange kisses with his beautiful Italian assistant? Who is the madman behind the plot and how do we find him? Who is the insider in the Vatican who is screwing everything up? And -- pride of place -- WILL they find that monstrous and incandescently evil anti-matter bomb? The bulk of the film is given over to the last task -- finding that bomb -- and, with only four or five hours before it explodes, everyone is forced to run instead of walk and to drive at top speed through the traffic-choked streets of the city. And the byways of Rome are something to behold. I had an encounter with a policeman who was directing traffic by hand at a busy crossroad. As I oozed past him I shouted a quick request for directions. He stepped off his pedestal, walked over to the car, leaned on the windowsill and began chatting in the most friendly manner about an uncle who lived in New York.
At any rate, we have Hanks and his intense female companion running from one landmark to the next, followed by the Vatican and Roman police force and Peter Skarsgaard, chief of the Swiss Guards. The clock on doomsday is winding down. Two or three of the hostage cardinals have already been branded and murdered. (One corpse seems to have been in this condition for much longer than a few hours.) In other words it's a chase movie, involving cues that I -- a humble shoemaker -- was unable to follow. I DID manage to get the reference to Bernini's marble statue of St. Teresa having a mystic experience. We actually get to see it, or a replica, and it's magnificent art work. You don't get a decent view of it or you'd be able to see down Teresa's wide open mouth into her throat and wonder how it was possible for Bernini to polish her tonsils. And hovering over her while she levitates is a smiling cupid holding a golden arrow. Instead of the arrow pointing to Teresa's nether regions, suggesting not an epiphany so much as an orgasm, as in the original, whoever has been leaving the clues has twisted the arrow in a direction that will lead Hanks and the rest to the next location. No, I didn't get it either.
I found the movie watchable but confusing because it's so episodic and convoluted. There were some James Bond moments that left me wondering why they were there. And the plot is a kind of paradox in that the person mainly responsible for the entire thing foils the plot without explanation. I gather this has now become another franchise. Tom Hanks, the Harvard symbologist, and an attractive assistant are called in to solve a conspiracy that will bring about a disaster. Haven't we seen this before?