Howard VS Brown

Rating: 6/10 (17 June 2006)

For many this film has been long awaited, and sadly for many, a disappointing adaptation from Dan Browns novel. This has been the first novel that I have managed to read before being tempted too much by the gossip and triumph of cinema-goers and reviews. As we all know, the world we create in our minds is far superior to world created by someone else, and i believe there is a lack of realism and depth to both the lead roles of Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu in comparison to the book, subsequently Sir Ian Mckellen and Paul Betteny certainly stole the lime light away from the central characters. What was significantly disappointing from the film was the lack continuity of time surrounding the lead roles. The book began with Langdon being woken from his hotel room in the middle of the night shortly after the discovery of Sauniere's death. This put the reader in a clear position of the situation of its characters, and how the events unfold during the long night to follow. Not only did Ron Howard choose an alternative introduction, in my mind he failed to portray the saga that each character had towards the search for the grail, again with the relationship and depth that the book did. However, it is common to say that the time allowed for the film was not sufficient to fully portray the books depth and structure. I would like to also point out that the alleged teamwork between Langdon and Neveu was also significantly diluted in the film, only allowing room for absurd calculations and almost scripted and formulaic findings. The connections they made towards finding certain answers such as the Zurich account number were consistently weakened as if Howard was pushed for time, in my eyes there are other weaknesses the film brought were Howard added personal 'amusing 'attributes to the dialogue, such as Neveu's reference to the blood line and attempt to walk on water, yet more importantly I found that Neveu's introduction to the reality of her family was far more disappointing than any other part of the film, shadowed with the members of the Priory of Sion, Howard should have taken the opportunity to realise the authenticity and realism behind Browns introduction of truth around Neveu's family tragedy and revealed it far less dramatic and ritualistic. Overall I found the film to represent and portray a fairly good thriller but once reading the book, there are finer qualities that Howard unfortunately failed to represent and yet as with any film everybody interprets differently.