Enough with the religious debate. It's still a good movie.

Rating: 8/10 (27 May 2006)

In the three years since it's publication, "The Da Vinci Code" has of course gained a cult following and has finally arrived on the silver screen. I will admit that there are some scenes from the book that the movie omitted due to time constraints, but the movie overall does a very good job. We might expect a Ron Howard movie to tug at our emotions, but this one does no such thing. It blows your mind as much as the novel does.
And then there's the characters. As Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, trying to expose a 2,000-year-old religious cover-up, Tom Hanks makes the most of his role, even with that weird hairdo. As Det. Sophie Neveu, trying to find out what was behind a certain murder, Audrey Tautou plays with the audience: she looks sweet, but this woman can gravitate between nice and acerbic. As Sir Leigh Teabing, Ian McKellen does as great a job as we can anticipate from a famous British actor. As Capt. Bezu Fache, Jean Reno is as good as always. Also starring are Alfred Molina as Cardinal Aringarosa, Paul Bettany as Silas, and Jurgen Prochnow as Andre Vernet, all doing a very good job.
Does the movie have any problems? Well, there seems to be a lot of running around, so you wonder how much that adds to the story. Also, I don't know whether or not this counts, but there's the possibility that the presence of someone like Tom Hanks distracts from the plot. And one has to wonder whether Audrey Tautou is there mostly for looks. What about the probability that this story is pretty unlikely? Maybe, But overall, I don't think that these factors subtract from the movie's quality. I really liked "TDVC", and I'm sure that you will. As long as we understand that this is a movie - albeit one that really gives us something to think about - then it's all good.
So what do YOU think that the Mona Lisa means?