A thoroughly enjoyable piece of fiction

Rating: 10/10 (22 May 2006)

I'm reminded in seeing this film of the Indiana Jones series, though for the moment, not the 2nd one, which I still enjoy but for different reasons. Raiders was made to resemble the classic films from Hollywood's golden era, and it succeeded in this. Last Crusade had the inspired pairing of Sean Connery and Harrison Ford as father and son, and it couldn't have worked any better. Both had great action set pieces, edge of your seat moments, and laughs. But none of this describes my favorite aspect of both films. Each is a quest for a religious artifact. This is the story from which all the films' other elements are built upon. It's a search, a mystery, one that requires a bit of globe-trotting to solve. Allies may be enemies, enemies may in truth be allies. And in both those films, the mysteries are built up (for fictional, entertaining purposes only) upon beliefs held by billions of people around the globe, for centuries. Beliefs that are one and the same with truth to many, but regardless, they build upon grand stories that we already know, or think we know.
The Da Vinci Code is another such film with grand ideas affecting religious history, but built upon the stories that we have been familiar with our whole lives. In this way we don't have to pick up on a story out of nowhere. Depending on your education or personal interest, we're already starting at the knowledge base of Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) or Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), and we go along for the ride as the most basic stories of religion, of the origin of faith for billions of people, is, shall I say, given a new spin. Now I don't want to stick my foot out on the train tracks here and debate whether any of the revelations here are true, or could be, but you want a story to convince you of its value, and basically this was the cinematic equivalent of a real page-turner. I was quite fascinated and intrigued. Areas of my brain were working again that hadn't been accessed since I finished that History of Ideas minor in college.
I thought this film hit all the right notes, perfectly. They don't dumb anything down, and at the same time nothing was overly complicated. True, there is a lot, a lot of exposition, but I was able to follow it, nothing was too repetitious, and I wasn't getting lost in a sea of theories, boring history, or truly absurd notions, as I feared I might. There are some thrills in the film, and chase scenes, but the studio never tried to sell it as a non-stop thrill ride, for it is not. There is nothing truly absurd or impossible in the script (such as revealing Judas to be Dracula). The climactic moments of the film do not involve any magic, or centuries old death traps that are beyond the comprehension of modern architects. The implications of the film's big discovery are huge, in that it could shake the foundations of Christianity, but rather than this making the actions of any cast member insignificant and trite by comparison, it rather serves quite well as motivation for several parties who all might have an interest in what Langdon and Neveu get drawn into, and would also justify the existence of a centuries old cult, whatever its ultimate goal may be.
And also on the subject of the filmmakers (gotta love Ron Howard in particular) doing everything right, this does not become some sort of by-default love story for the two lead characters. Oh no, one's male, one's female, they're on the run, dodging bullets, we have to have them kiss at some point! No no, none of that. These are intelligent leading characters, both seeking a truth that outweighs their own personal motivations, and told from the point of view of a gifted author, not the Hollywood machine. And there's some real talent in the cast anyway. Hanks and Tautou are international stars, as are Ian McKellen (finding his way into several blockbusters these last 6 years) and Jean Reno. McKellen gives the best performance of the film, as to be expected, as a grail historian who gets into some amusing arguments with Hanks' character, but on that note I don't want people to discredit Paul Bettany, known more for his role in Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind. There's been some criticism of his performance here as murderous monk Silas, but it's a tortured character who, like many others, believes he is serving a much higher purpose. His suffering is his own damn fault, as he feels the need to punish himself for his sins, and suffer as Jesus did, but I thought Bettany pulled it off quite well.
So, I have not read the book, and probably won't in all honesty. My motivation to read the Lord of the Rings books never reached significant heights. I prefer the film medium. I can see with The Da Vinci Code in what ways it was originally a book, and for those who insist on comparing the two mediums, as usually, I don't give a damn what you have to say. But I loved this story as presented to me this afternoon on a big screen, and this is the ideal sort of fun I look to have every summer when the big stars and the big name directors hook up.