Not nearly as good as the book, but more consistent

Rating: 6/10 (19 May 2006)

Although I'm a Christian, I must admit I did like the book. As a work of fiction, I found it to be a fairly good yard - at least for the first part: up until Langdon and Neveu leave Teabing's home, I found it a gripping read. From then on, the book got a bit muddled on its purpose and dynamics and turned a lot less satisfying. A good thing about the film is that it is a lot more constant, in the sense that I didn't feel cheated with this "second part" after seeing the events up to that point. The problem is that it is uniform of the wrong side of good, and it all feels too long and drawn out. While I loved Audrey Tautou in "Amelie" and "A Very Long Engagement", where she played endearing and funny roles, I think she just feels too fragile as Neveu. Tom isn't nearly as bad as I feared as Langdon, but feels uneasy in the part as well (I think someone like Sean Bean would have been better). Sadly, the two of them, while competent, don't spark. And that is really the "sin" of the film: it's not bad, but everything about it (the directing, the actors, the screenplay with inevitably too much exposition) feels too safe to the point of being bland.