A roundly ho-hum affair

Rating: Null/10 (28 May 2008)

Dr Robert Langdon is a historical symbolist from Harvard in Paris to present some of his work when he learns of the murder of friend and colleague Sauniere, curator of the Louvre. Inspector Fache calls Langdon to the scene under the pretence of helping translate the symbols and text that Sauniere left behind him as he died but really he believes the historian is his man. The police cryptologist does not agree though and she helps Langdon flee the scene and so begins a race against time to expose the identity of the killer and the wider quest for the Holy Grail.
I'm not a snob but when it comes to books I do so little reading that I am pretty selective about what I read and the massive thriller tombs beloved of long-haul travellers and beach holiday makers generally don't appeal to me. Even with all the fuss and hype over this book I never bothered to check it out and when the film came out, all the fuss just put me off. Now that it has safely reached television it arrives in front of me with so-so reviews, lots of copy-cats and several screenings per day  it takes a better film than this to stand up to such once it is stripped of its marketing campaign.
For those caught up in the story then I'm sure that this film will do a sterling job but for me sitting a bit further back from it, the plot is really too contrived and silly to engage. OK, we're not in the realm of the terrible National Treasure 2 here but still I was watching this mostly feeling quite cold and uninterested in the material. Thanks to the budget it looks very good and visually it did make me feel a bit guilty for not being able to take it more seriously but ultimately looks are not enough and the running time is far too long for something so dull that takes itself seriously to the point of being hard to enjoy.
Howard's delivery doesn't help too much as it feels like he doesn't want to make it too exciting at any point for fear of taking away from the "seriousness" of the material. So he and his cinematographer make the European locations and religious imagery all very classy and impressive but yet there is little in the way of entertainment or dramatic value. This is backed up by some surprisingly bland performances  particularly from Hanks. He is too soft and nondescript in the lead and his intellectual apathy was another barrier to me being drawn into the plot. Likewise I didn't think that Tautou managed to find much within the character to work with. Reno floats round in the background, Bettany is so-so while names like Molina, McKellen and Prochnow all fill in round the edges without anyone lifting the film to be better.
Overall then this is a very ho-hum affair that failed to engage me even if it was sporadically interesting. The delivery is too serious and plodding considering how silly the vast majority of the plot was and ultimately I didn't find the film to be much cop in regards drama, action, acting or anything really.