It's as good as any director could do it

Rating: 7/10 (13 January 2007)

A lot of criticism has been leveled at this movie, almost as much criticism as the book itself. But I'm of the firm belief that this is the kind of story that doesn't adapt easily to the big screen and Ron Howard has done the best he was able to do with the material he was given.
My only complaint is the casting choices. I agree with Sir Ian McKellan and Paul Bettany - they were the right choices (perhaps the only choices) but I think Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou were the wrong choices to play Langdon and Neveu. Hanks is just not the Langdon type (if you've read the book, you'll know what I mean) and Tatou just looks to me like some kind of wilting lily, not the tough assertive woman portrayed in the book. I would have much preferred something along the lines of Harrison Ford and Sophie Marceau.
Jean Reno did a decent enough job as Bezu Fache. When it comes to playing French policemen, Reno basically monopolizes those roles!
The movie does do a fairly good job of following the book plot. There's a few minor changes in the movie but nothing worth mentioning. The "extended version" of the movie, now out on DVD, adds an approximate extra half hour to the running time and the extra scenes concentrate mainly on Bishop Aringarosa's dealings with the secret Vatican council.
By the way, look out for a cameo appearance in the movie from Dan Brown himself! He appears at the beginning when Hanks is doing his symbology conference. When Hanks is signing books, Brown is in the crowd talking to someone. Just look out for the Harris Tweed jacket and the blond moppy hair!
All in all, quite a good movie and surprisingly quite faithful to the book.