An echo of the novel...slightly different, and not heard as well.

Rating: 7/10 (19 May 2006)

Every now and then a best seller rises up to international fame, a film hitches the ride and punishes audiences with missing scenes, bad direction, story change and everything else that made the novel so special. This is not the entire case for Ron Howards 'The Da Vinci Code'. Normally i think it would be wrong to compare a film to its novel, however there is no secret to its popularity and it wouldn't be wrong to assume most of the viewers of the film would be the readers of the novel or Tom Hanks and/or Amilie fans.
The film in comparison to the book is not far off, only the occasional additional lines, that i will not give away, seem to be strategically placed to calm the Christians who were outraged by the novel. The character of Robert Langdon seems to be dumbed down and given a spiritual side, this i could imagine would outrage the most devout believers of the novels claims. However, i still think even though the film was not completely faithful (95% faithful) to the novel, it was still a good little puppy; following the main issues of the book. The film did create the atmosphere i remember reading about, i found myself sitting in the theatre and thinking 'this is how i imagined it' but then again i have seen postcards of France.
The performances of the actors were mediocre. Tom Hanks was lacking dimensions of a character known so well to so many, personally when reading the novel i pictured Harrison Ford in the pre-adventure university lecturing acts of the Indiana Jones movies. Audrey Tautou wasn't as great as i imagined her to be, my advise would be not to expect too much from her. Ian McKellen (Sir Leigh Teabing) was fantastic, i imagined his character to be stocky from the novel, but i forgot all that at once when seeing the charming old bugger.
The film loses a sense of revelation, which the readers of the novel apparently obtain. My guess it was done to calm outraged Christians, but it is my guess again why they would be watching the film. However with or without revelations, the film was entertaining and worth the watch. Bonza!