Listless and trodding at times big-screen adaptation of Dan Brown's mega blockbuster hit novel

Rating: 6/10 (30 May 2006)

THE DA VINCI CODE (2006) ** Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, Jean Reno, Paul Bettany, Alfred Molina, Jurgen Prochnow, Jean-Yves Bertloot, Etienne Chicot. Listless and trodding at times big-screen adaptation of Dan Brown's mega blockbuster hit novel about a vast conspiracy involving the Catholic Church, a mysterious murder in the Louvre enlisting 'symbologist' Robert Langdon (a seemingly miscast Hanks who does all he can from being completely lost in the proceedings) and a plucky French policewoman (Tautou) who team up to uncover some hidden truths that lead to deadly outcomes. Filmmaker Ron Howard pulls out the stops but it is Akiva Goldsman's dense screenplay that seems to boggle the globetrotting adventure thriller (which I must admit being the only one on the planet not having read) to engage the viewer in spite of some epic production design and on-locale lensing. Bettany is affectively creepy as an albino monk/assassin who will stop at nothing from protecting his beliefs and McKellan camps it up in a hammy turn as an associate of Langdon's bringing all up to snuff in who did what and why and when. A dull history lesson overall.