Great potential, great director, bad casting

Rating: Null/10 (20 May 2006)

I read the DaVinci Code before i even knew it was going to be a movie so i have just been counting the days until it came out. Well, i went to see it last night and while the movie remained rather loyal to the book the casting did not. Tom Hanks should not have been Robert Langdon. I had hoped that it was merely disappointment for me not seeing him as Robert before, but watching the movie confirms it. His look and everything just doesn't fit to me. While Audrey Tatou sort of warmed up to me as Sophie, she still seemed to hold some sort of stiffness about her. Now, most likely the cause of my dislike in the portrayal of the characters has to do with some of the horrible lines that were used in the movie.
And i mean horrible. In the attempt to include information, especially in the Louvre, it came across really fake and very out of character for them to be in a life-threatening crisis and take the time to explain the meaning of artwork. Now while this is very well crafted in the book adding intellectual rigor with a stunning plot it is merely used as part of Dan Brown's descriptive style. That is why i've come to the conclusion that it is impossible to successfully adapt any of Dan Brown's books into movies. They truly contain too much information. While it fits in a book as description and thoughts that run through Langdon's mind, it comes out awkward with Langdon giving Sophie Art 101 while they are hurrying to figure out her grandfather's riddles.
It literally would make me cringe at some of the lines with how robotic they were. As well such things like Sauniere not being Sophie's grandfather when he was; at least i always thought he was when reading the book. And of course such little details like Sophie having brown hair and not red (since that was a pretty important detail in the book), Silas having blue eyes and not pink, the grandmother having short and not long hair bothered me for they were clearly described in the book. And as much as i think of Ian McKellan, Leigh Teabing was described entirely different in the book. He was supposed to be portly with curly hair.
Now, don't get me wrong, Ian McKellan did a wonderful job and definitely pulled off Teabing, but i feel that you cannot capture the book if the characters do not fit correctly. So that definitely bothered me as i watched it. The best was Paul Bettany as Silas, perfect for the part. Besides being a wonderful actor he truly fits the role with the look and everything, minus the pink eyes which as i've said before, bothered me. As well Fache and Aringarosa were perfect in the casting.
So over all, it is a really good movie if you have not read the book, but if you have then i would suggest to not see the movie, because more likely it will annoy you than entertain you. I can be pretty picky on adaptations of books, so it's not so much a bad movie as just disappointing. It's still pretty good though.