DaVinci Code lite

Rating: 5/10 (26 June 2005)

For those who simply can't wait until "The DaVinci Code" makes its way to the big screen, there's "National Treasure" to serve as a sort of second hand substitute in the meantime. Like the Dan Brown bestseller, this is a wildly improbable caper tale set in the context of historical fiction.
Nicholas Cage plays Benjamin Franklin Gates, a man who has spent his whole adult life in pursuit of a treasure that he believes the Founding Fathers hid in the late 18th Century, a search that has obsessed and ruined the lives of his own forebears for generations. He is teamed with Ian (Sean Bean), a less savory fortune hunter who has no qualms about breaking the law or eliminating anyone who stands in the way of getting what he wants. When these two men become convinced that there is an invisible map leading to the treasure hidden on the back of the original Declaration of Independence, the highly-principled Ben opts to forego the treasure, while Ian decides to steal the priceless document. It is only when Ben realizes that he must steal the document in order to save it from Ian's diabolical clutches that he springs into action. From then on, it becomes a race against time, as Ben and his cohorts try to unearth the clues and crack the codes that lead to the treasure before Ian and his henchmen can do the same - all while being chased by FBI agents who are hot on his tail. Frankly, one would have thought that the Founding Fathers - what with a war to fight and a nation to found - would have had more important things to do with their time than devise all the elaborate plotting necessary to set up this search. But, apparently, one would have been wrong.
The movie may be fine fun for 12-year-old boys of all ages, but the rest of us will find much of it cheesy and unconvincing. There's always a certain satisfaction that comes with watching stories like these - that of following the clues and then piecing together all the fragments to achieve the full picture - but "National Treasure" is really only mildly diverting even in its best moments. Those generally come when we find ourselves at great historic sites such as Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, the Old North Church etc. Unfortunately, the dialogue is generally inane, and the acting - well, let's just say that's it's performances like this one that make it increasingly difficult to remember that Cage once walked off the stage clutching an Academy statuette for best actor in his hands. Too often the film feels juvenile and slapdash, especially in the romantic pairing of Cage and Diane Kruger, as a curator of the National Archives who reluctantly comes along for the ride.
The Founding Fathers must be rolling over in their graves.