Near Flawless transformation from Novel to the Big Screen (However, nothing else can better illustrate the loss of 'Sacred Feminine')

Rating: 9/10 (13 June 2006)

One thing that 'Priory of Sion' value and the whole novel is all about is the 'Balance' between Man and Woman.
From "Mona Lisa" (the reason she is supposed to have the 'all knowing' smile) to Da Vinci's "Last Supper" (the true Chalice that holds the blood of Christ), the concept of 'Balance' (Equality) between Man and Woman is re-enforced.
However, that point either completely missed the creators of this movie or they didn't care. Eitherway, nothing highlights the 'Im-Balance' between Man and Woman today than this movie.
In the Novel, the character of Sophie played by Audrey Tatou is not supposed to be completely helpless and clueless. In fact her character contributes equally to the effort of solving the mystery, just as much as the character of Robert Langdon played by Tom Hanks. They BOTH take turns in finding the answers to different puzzles.
It is Sophie who translates the Annagram "So Dark the Con of Man" and not Robert Langdon. It is Sophie, who rescues Robert Langdon, by first sending the cops on wild goose chase, by removing the 'bug' from Robert Langdon and planting it on a dump truck. It is Sophie, who takes the valuable painting hostage, and threatens to tear it apart, unless the guard trying to arrest them disarms. It is her training by her Grand-father all her childhood, that makes her the best person to understand the clues left by him. In the novel, just when they are about to open the Vault, they get one and only chance to enter the correct account number, which they don't have. If they enter it in-correctly, then the contents of the the vault will be forever lost to them. While Robert Langdon is about the enter the scrambled Fibonacci sequence, left by Jacque Suniere written in invisible ink next to his body before his death, it is Sophie who figures that the sequence is way too random to be a password and would be too difficult for her Grand-father to remember. An unscrambled sequence would be a better password to remember as it can always be figured out.
Unfortunately, in the movie, the credit for all those efforts is entirely given to Robert Langdon's character. This pattern continues throughout the movie. This is truly tragic! After coming so far, even today, its impossible for this world to accept that a woman can make a meaningful contribution, aside than being eye-candy. No, the only appropriate role for her is to be a damsel in distress who has to be rescued by her knight in shining armor.
Even bigger sin is to portray Sophie's character as one who truly doesn't care about solving the mystery. She seems to be upset at being thrown into this mess, and it seems that she doesn't really care about something so important that it could shake the foundation of Church and change mankind forever. Anyone dealing with that prospect would find themselves enthused about the resolution of the facts. However, in the movie, Sophie's character is 'apathetic'. That is exactly opposite of how she is portrayed in the Novel. In fact, she truly wants to find out what her Grand-father wanted her to inherit. She does not want to be left behind by Robert-Leah team.
Apathy is one of the reasons behind woman being treated as inferior over the ages. A man is the one who ask 'Whys' and would go to any length to get them answered. Woman supposedly only care about surviving, pleasure and material things. All things that are unworthy of being the main purpose of life.
By portraying Sophie's character as 'Apathetic', the same libel has been thrown upon her as on every woman since dawn of mankind. She doesn't care about 'IMPORTANT' things, so it is natural to keep her out of matters of 'IMPORTANCE'.
Aside from messing up the underlying main theme of the Novel, the main focus of 'Kninghts Templars' and 'Priory-of-Sion', this is a nearly flaw-less movie! Usually one finds that novel was way better than the movie, but here the difference is minimal. You could for all practical purposes either watch this movie or read the Novel and you won't miss much, aside from what is pointed out above.
Some of the facts are unnecessarily distorted like Jacque Suniere was not really Sophie's Grand-father, but in fact he is shown to be her real Grand-father in the novel. She even has a brother that she is re-united with in the end. Most importantly, the reason, a man would entrust the most powerful secret in history of mankind to a man he has never met before is once again given a sexist explanation in the movie. Sophie is too clueless and too helpless to resolve the mystery on her own so the wise Grandfather tells her to find her Knight in shining armor, Robert Langdon. To an extent that maybe the case, however, even more important reason is that Robert Langdon had written a manuscript that his publisher had sent to Jacque Suniere to get his praise for the book and in that he unknowingly spells out the location of the Grail itself.
That was the main motivation for the old man in contacting Robert Langdon. Once he knew his life was coming to end and he could not reach the one person he could trust his secret with, who he knew was not compromised, but who he has failed to fully prepare. His last thought was to team up his Grand daughter with one person beside him who knows the location of the Grail but doesn't know that he does - Robert Langdon.
I recommend every man and woman to watch this movie!