critics have never been more wrong

Rating: 10/10 (22 May 2006)

I saw the movie twice (two different dates wanted to see it) -- opening night and Sunday night of the first weekend. Both times it was sold out and both times the audience was gripped from start to finish. Opening night the audience clapped at the end. Sunday night they did not clap but were clearly deeply into the movie. Is it the best movie ever made? Nah. But it's about a topic that fascinates audiences indoctrinated since birth in all manner of religious myth. The US is chock full of very superstitious and paranoid people, so the movie delivers right into the sweet spot. This is the land of "Touched by an Angel," the land where 80% of people do not believe in the theory of evolution. Can't miss with a film like Da Code. I enjoyed the subversiveness of the flick. It's pro women, it's pro rationality, and it quite rightly portrays Christians (particularly Catholics) to be members of a worldwide cult that has been as prone to violence over the years as anything the Muslims can dish up. Ian McKellen (openly gay) makes the movie. I love his response to the protesting Christians at Cannes, to the effect that they ought to welcome a film depicting Jesus as married and sleeping with a woman, as it finally puts to rest conjecture Jesus was gay.