"The Da Vinci Code" Suffers from a Repetitive Narrative

Rating: 4/10 (19 May 2008)

"The Da Vinci Code" is the third film Ron Howard has directed since his masterpiece "A Beautiful Mind." Howard makes no mistake about crossing over to his roots and implementing techniques similar in his Oscar winning film. Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is much like John Nash (Russell Crowe) with one big difference; Langdon has no psychological problems that nearly ruin his everyday life and the people around him making him far less sympathetic. Langdon has a phenomenal ability to break codes. He's, supposedly, merely a master of symbols, but when some random guy he's never met writes something that is incredibly insignificant to his life, Langdon cannot only figure out that it's an anagram, but he can break it in a matter of seconds. Who ever said stupid people go to Harvard? This Langdon is a genius and he figures out anything even though he's put in a situation he has never prepared for and is completely new to. As he cracks the codes, Howard uses the same highlighting techniques to show us what he's looking at as he did with John Nash who looked at a bunch of numbers and found a strategic pattern sequence, proving to be "the best natural code breaker I ever saw." Well that guy hasn't met Robert Langdon. This guy is so good at breaking codes he can figure out somethings in code in the first place.
"The Da Vinci Code" has potential, but it's also extremely ambitious. Where "The Da Vinci Code" struggles is not only with the thrilling chase of finding the truth and the hunting of people who try to expose them, but for the fact that it tries to come off as realistic when it's utterly unrealistic as it relies on a barrage of coincidences and false interpretations of history. "The Da Vinci Code," surprisingly, becomes boring two hours into the film as the quest of Langdon feels unrelenting. We feel the film has come to a rest once we find out the big secret that isn't all that impressive or shocking, but it keeps going and going and going. Not only is it repetitive, but it's long, drawn out, with one chase after another and one guy popping up after another. After about an hour it gets to the point where the entire country is chasing Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu, who somehow always seem to slip past these dumb, bozo-looking cops. In certain parts it becomes extremely ridiculous. For a long two and half hours Langdon and Neveu discover something, then are nearly captured (Sometimes getting caught and pulling a James Bond, and escaping capture), then finding a hiding place to talk about the discovery they found before nearly getting killed. This same act happens about four times. That's the plot for the first 2 hours and 20 minutes. Discovery, chase, escape, talk about discovery, then discover something else, and repeat. Since they never get caught, we get the feeling that they will always trick out, step aside, and out smart the clumsy nation that is after them. This is not at all thrilling and the endless talking is going to put people to sleep even if this stuff is pretty interesting. Some may argue it's not supposed to be taken seriously, but it doesn't come off as fantasy. It comes off as a fantasy trying to be realistic.
The best parts of "The Da Vinci Code" come from the style, the smart source material, and some of the performances (most notably, Paul Bettany who also popped up in "A Beautiful Mind" and gave a very strong performance there). Bettany is incredible and delivers one of the best acting performances of the year as the tortured Silas. Silas, is the man doing Gods will. He's unknowingly killing people for the wrong reasons, but because his church saved him he believes he's doing good. He believes and trust them so much because they reached out to him when no one else would. He even inflicts pain upon himself to serve penance for all things he does for the greater good. He's a mislead soul, lost within the corruption of the powerful. He plays this role to perfection that could have easily gone over the top. He plays it with the perfect balance as he's not too restrained where he's not believable and not too far over the top where he's laughable. Too bad Tom Hanks' mullet is incredibly distracting and the furthest thing I think of when thinking of a Harvard scholar. Hanks is merely average here. The look, style, and cinematography are truly mesmerizing. The flashback sequences are phenomenal and the art direction is on an Academy Award worthy level. There are many different locations in many different cities across many centuries and the look every time has its own feel that adds to the film. The source material is smart and dumb at the same time. There are some historical inaccuracies, but it's a mildly well written script with a lot of great myth and mystery. The material is both a strength and its greatest weakness. There's quite a bit in Ron Howard's film, "The Da Vinci Code," to like, but there's also a lot to hate. A lot more.