doesn't translate that well to screen

Rating: 5/10 (18 May 2006)

Ablino monk Silas is searching for an artifact, the whereabouts only know by curator of the Lourve, Jacques Sauniere. Jacques is shot by Silas and left for dead. Symbologist Robert Langdon currently giving a lecture on symbols, is asked to the crime scene of Jacques. Before death Jacques had left clues and carved symbols into his body. Grand daughter of Jacques Sofie Neveu, a cryptologist, is compelled to find the killer and to understand what her grand father was hiding. Helping to uncover these secrets, crippled Leigh Teabing tells of secrets held by the Christian church and the location of the holy grail; the riddle Jacques has left for Sofie and Robert to solve.
With all the hype and controversy surrounding both film and book alike, this screen adaptation Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code has suffered. Dan Brown's book has become the highest grossing book of our time, also been attacked against the Catholic church for the theories about Jesus and his lineage. The Da Vinci Code in all was an entertaining page turner, blending fact and fiction, a great farce of a read. For entertaining as the book is, it hasn't survived the translation to screen that well.
With all the facts about art, mathematical equations, secrets sects, religious cover ups, Browns's narrative kept them in a steady flow and had a natural element to them. Screen writer Akiva Goldsman fails to grasp that flow, the interesting facts are awkwardly injected and miss important information about them; probably to make you read the book if you haven't already. Akiva hasn't changed things around, it is a faithful adaptation, but its so straight forward for anyone who has read the book, it doesn't bring any new surprise.
The translation to screen isn't the films only problem. The performance are well under par. Tom Hanks is no where near his best, he nearly wears the same expression the entire time. Audrey Tautou is a beautiful actress, yet she is nowhere near her best. Paul Bettany as the albino Silas just stays off a flat performance. Delivering the better performance, Ian McKellen is the only one bringing energy and enthusiasm to his character Teabing. Jean Reno reforms himself after his terrible acting in The Pink Panther. Alfred Molina is sorely underused as Bishop Aringarosa.
The Da Vinci Code is a disappointing adaptation. Yet for all its misfires and flaws, The Da Vinci Code is still entertaining.