A case of "if you want the best experience, read the book"

Rating: 7/10 (15 June 2006)

STAR RATING: ***** The Works **** Just Misses the Mark *** That Little Bit In Between ** Lagging Behind * The Pits
A curator is murdered in Paris's revered Louvre Museum. The French police, headed by Leutenant Bezu Fache (Jean Reno) call on the expertise of Professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), an expert in Pagan Symbols, when mysterious, blood-drenched patterns are found all over the body. However, Fache's suspicions of Robert have already been aroused and, unbeknownst to the professor, he's slipped a tracking device on him. Then Agent Nevu (Audrey Tautou) intervenes, springs him from the museum and begins a wild chase around Paris full of wild twists and turns. Robert learns the curator was Nevu's grand-father and was involved with a religious sect called The Priory of Sion. It all leads to a monk, Silas (Paul Bettany) sent by the religious sect of Opus Dei and the ultimate re-writing of history.
There's nothing like controversy to get something talked about, and it seems the best results are when that controversy involves religion. Dan Brown's much talked about novel The Da Vinci Code set off much consternation by basically re-writing the bible- and now that controversy has been adapted to the big screen.
The book suffered from trite dialogue but still managed to be a relentless page turner that fired at you with interesting fact after interesting fact and kept you on the edge of your seat till the last page. The film adaptation, then, is as good as can be expected. It's well cast. Tom Hanks is just the kind of lead you need for this kind of thing, but he's not at his best here. Jean Reno also has appeal as Captain Fache (strangely, though, I'd always pictured Michael Gambon in the role!) Tautou and Bettany are also very engaging in support but it's Ian McKellen who steals the show here as eccentric old grail enthusiast Sir Leigh Leabing, delivering the most spirited and compelling performance. And it has a reliable director in Ron Howard. But if you've read the book, the film offers little in the way of it's own variation on the story and pretty much just plays it like it was in the book, making it a bit of a dull and unsurprising thing after a while. If you haven't read the book, do so, it'll be much more rewarding. ***