Well done, Ron

Rating: 8/10 (21 May 2006)

It's not hard to write a screenplay, if it's a book you're going to film. Dan Brown's bestseller The Da Vinci Code is ridiculous at some points. The plot is based on nothing, it's a theory Brown believes, maybe he doesn't even believe it. The movie adaption is preciously the book, with a couple of exceptions. So the plot doesn't work here either.
We see Sauniere being killed by Silas (Paul Bettany) and during that murder, there are flashes of Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) giving a seminar in the opening scene. God, I love the shooting and editing style of this movie. The movie continues and it actually gets exiting. The Da Vinci Code isn't a stupid Cat-Mouse / Run-Catch movie, the pursuit scenes are actually exiting. There are funny moments in the movie and Ron Howard keeps us to the screen with his brilliant editing style. It's amazing to see how flashbacks and modern-day images are in the same frame. Langdon and Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou) walk in the past. It's amazing.
Talking about Tautou. There were a lot of critics who didn't think Tom Hanks was appropriate to play Robert Langdon. When I read the book, I knew Hanks was going to play Langdon. I could totally imagine Hanks playing it. What I couldn't imagine was Tautou playing Neveu. She said herself that she thought see was too young and not appropriate for the part. I agreed with her. During the movie, I realized I was totally wrong and I mean totally. She plays it wonderfully. The whole cast play it wonderfully. Hanks, Tautou, Sir Ian McKellen, Jean Reno, Bettany. Bettany's role, Silas, is what I think the hardest part of the movie. Silas is the albino monk, remember? He has to hit himself and he's walking around with a cilice. Bettany made it work. THere was just one slight error that occurred. At some point Silas places the cilice around his right leg and in the next shot he's still limping with his left leg. But that's not Bettany's fault.
I fell in love with the movie, the music was great as well. The right kind of music in the right part of the scene, that's the true power of a soundtrack. If you don't do that, you might as well make a silence movie. As said, I fell in love with the movie, but the editing and shooting was the best part of my night. Ron, thank you.