fast-paced but hollow puzzle-drama

Rating: 5/10 (7 March 2010)

In "National Treasure: Book of Secrets," the 2007 sequel to the original "National Treasure" from 2004, historian Ben Gates (Nicholas Cage) finds himself in the distinctly unenviable position of having to clear his great-great-grandfather's name from the charge - being leveled by a black market antiquities dealer (Ed Harris) - that his forefather played a major role in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. In order to prove the accusation wrong, thereby restoring not only his ancestor's reputation but his own in the process, Gates must uncover the whereabouts of a treasure map leading to the fabled City of Gold built by a tribe of pre-Columbian Native Americans. (And don't bother asking how those two things are related because, even after watching the movie, I'm still not sure I would be able to tell you).
"Book of Secrets," produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Jon Turteltaub and directed by Turteltaub, is a giant Rube Goldberg contraption about a series of Rube Goldberg contraptions. In terms of the story, there are more twists and turns, leaps in logic, conspiracy theories and contrived red herrings than even the most astute puzzle-solver should be required to keep up with. Luckily, the action moves along at a quick enough pace - including an impressive car chase through the streets and alleyways of London - that one doesn't have much time to question the sense of it all.
The actors certainly do throw themselves into the spirit of the enterprise, running around like mad through an assortment of colorful, touristy settings - from the Eiffel Tower to Buckingham Palace to the White House to Mount Vernon to the Library of Congress to Mount Rushmore - but the film, taken as a whole, is a pretty soulless exercise overall. Most grating is the stereotypical love/hate relationship between Ben and his ex-girlfriend, Abigail (Diane Kruger), an archivist at the National Archives, who are obviously still hopelessly, madly in love with one another and only need one more epic, life-threatening adventure to bring that truth home to them - which puts the audience one step ahead of the sleuthers to begin with. And as if that weren't enough, we're treated to a second bickering couple - Ben's divorced mother (Helen Mirren) and father (Jon Voight) - to parallel the first and double our displeasure.
The problem with a movie like this one is that, no matter how well it's put together on a technical level, finally, after what feels like the thousandth uncovered clue and the millionth hairbreadth escape from a fate-worse-than-death, the viewer simply exhausts himself trying to keep up with it all and stops paying attention.