What a disappointment

Rating: 2/10 (25 May 2006)

I had great hopes for Da Vinci Code on the big screen. I liked the book - I thought it was quite good in the story telling, albeit poorly written sentence by sentence. Although, I have to say I think it was way over-hyped as a book - I don't really understand the craze for it the past 2 years.
But the movie adaptation - what a bore! I almost fell asleep in a few parts. The acting, especially that of Hanks and Tautou - both seem like cardboard cutouts, reading a very lame script. Tautou, especially - uttering the same few french words under her breath at just about every pouting scene she plays. Hanks too. "Oh my God - a rose" - when he first sees the cryptex box. Looks like a cheesy Chinese box, with what looks much more like a white petunia than a rose - hardly an 'Oh my God' moment. This sort of thing repeats and repeats and repeats. I've never seen Hanks so dull and lifeless in a film.
I think the problem with making a movie of such a book is that there is so much information (whether fact or fiction) doled out in the book that you can digest at your leisure - perhaps even rereading a section or two to make sure you got it all. But in a movie, that sort of thing comes off as stiff and force-fed - the actors are made to feed out this information in scenes that come off as totally unnatural. It just seems dull and forced.
The whole thing culminates in a cheesy end scene that is just over the top in trying to convey deep 'oh my God' thought and emotion, and to me just seems silly and trying too hard to be dramatic.
I wanted to like this movie, but I have no intention of buying the DVD and really don't care to see it again. Too bad.