Ahhh yes the moment we've been waiting for...

Rating: 6/10 (20 May 2006)

Well the world will have their eyes peeled on the reaction this movie brings. Why? People are taking it more serious than it should be and they forget that it is an amazing work of fiction and show's no limits in the imagination that Dan Brown explores. It think Ron Howard forgot the fiction element and took the movie much more serious than it really is. It shows in the wooden acting by both Hanks and Tautou. Don't get my wrong i've seen most of Tautous movies and this seems to be the least job I could appreciate with "God is great" a close second. I kept asking myself why Hanks couldn't show any emotion, it looked like he practically gave up on acting and just wanted to get it over with. I hope this will be his last horrible performance because of course he is a great versatile actor.
When I first read the book, it read like a formulaic Hollywood screenplay with amateur dialogue but yet it kept me peeled and wanting to continue reading more. Sadfully the movie kept leaving me hanging and I was constantly waiting for the constant smooth connections the book had. Again I was disappointed with the dialogue which was all too simplistic and I had false hopes that Akiva Goldsman would try to vamp it up a little and clean up the rough edges left by Brown. The Goldsman/Howard duo keep praying (bad choice of words) for a successful movie and they have financially but they somehow ruin something that has talent and they make it too simplistic for todays audience which is increasingly getting smarter. If Goldsman keeps clunking out work as "Batman and Robin" "Lost in Space" and "Practical Magic" then of course you won't be able to excel in making something with substance as "Da Vinci Code" does have, and why not it's a great idea and is controversial which is another dimension inherent in film. Maybe he should stay with his buddy Joel Schumacher and continue hitting them out of the park.
Howard took the epic idea too seriously and we see that in his film-making. At one point where Langon and Sofie are getting chased by the police in the smart car, the orchestral music takes control of the scene and while I waited for the sound of tires screeching which would have increased the intensity I was left out of the mood. Maybe Jene Reno should have used his knowledge from "Ronin" but then he would probably get fired by the producers. There were other scene which felt too forced and slowed the movie down. One being Where Tautou and Hanks go to a shady park to think about what to do next and Tautou gives the heroin junkie some money to buy food. The scene was just another in a series that bogged down the feel of the film.
There were a few upsides. I did feel the cinematography was very well done and I congratulate Salvatore Totino on creating a very darkly lit and mysterious mood to the movie which makes it worth watching. But how can you go wrong with making Paris look mysterious? Sir Ian McKellen as Sir Leigh Teabing was more than I could hope for. He pulled off the whit that Teabing had in the book but was more humorous with such lines as "I guess my Cannabis charge has caught up with me". And not surprising, because I believe he has a lot of talent but Paul Bettany pulled off Silas very well. Ever since "Dogville" and "Gangster No. 1" I think he is starting to show himself as more of a character actor and people are taking him more seriously. I was frightened of him in "Gangster no. 1" and I felt the same here too.
I enjoyed the book thoroughly even though it's one of the easiest reads the film felt far inferior and was quite disappointing. Maybe it should have been made into a movie first so that a lot of people wouldn't have left the theatre agitated.