I didn't read the book

Rating: 7/10 (27 May 2006)

I haven't read the book.
I think when reviewing The DaVinci Code, everyone should disclose whether they are influenced by Dan Browns print phenomena. Just how many of those disclosures are there? Well, it has been speculated that some 60 million copies of the book have been sold. If you take into account that people read books and pass them along to friends, it would not be stretching the limits to say that some 100 million people have read The DaVinci Code.
One hundred freakin' million. Let me put that into perspective. That is more than the population of the United Kingdom and Canada combined. That's more than the total number of records The Rolling Stones have sold. And that is just short of the total number of women who have rejected my "Nice hair" opening line.
I think it is important to disclose because this film came with about as high expectations as Star Wars Episode I. Office water-cooler talk was as rampant as the film neared its release date. Everything from the second guessing of the casting to talk about Tom Hanks' fro were being bantered around from cubicle to cubicle faster that the whispers of the office lushes Christmas party lap dance.
With everyone and their brother knowing the story and heading to the theatre with varying degrees of high expectations, the movie had a built-in bias. All director Ron Howard had to do was walk the line of keeping page turners happy while adapting characters and condensing story plot lines to keep up with film pacing. No easy task to be sure.
I can't spend time talking much about the plot. Most will already know what to expect, and those like me who went in oblivious, are better off just letting the story play out in front of them. The Coles Notes version is that The DaVinci Code is a mystery that can unravel everything we have been taught about some of the basic models of Christianity. Mary Magdelane, the Holy Grail and Jesus' own family tree up for debate with one clue after another leading Symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) and a female cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou) on a quest to solve a mystery that has been hidden for thousands of years.
The DaVinci Code is the third large summer film to be released this summer right on the heels of Mission Impossible III and Poseidon and does the first two releases one better by producing a slick story that is backed with strong acting and interesting action mixed in with high tense drama. Overlong  yes. Unbelievable and sometimes just plain illogical  sure. But that is what the movie is suppose to be. It is a fantasy. It's not based on fact (well, not all of it), and is meant as simple entertainment.
I went to see The DaVinci Code with two friends that were test subjects on the matter. One had read the book and other had not. He who read the novel was slightly disappointed and I had to listen for two hours after the showing as to what was missing from the screenplay that might have better explained a few of the plot dot connections. The second was also disappointed as he compared the film to Nicholas Cage's National Treasure and kept expecting Hanks' character to put on a cowboy hat and find the Staff of Ra to find the exact location of the Holy Grail.
I on the other hand was not disappointed. I thought it worked as a good movie that held my interest and kept me interested in both the characters and the next clue that would lead them down a path to which I was unknowing.
The DaVinci Code is one of those films that are critic-proof. Opening worldwide the movie is a license to make money and you can be sure that when the big earners at the end of the year are listed in 'Gross Order' this one will be in the top five. That makes my efforts in the space sort of redundant, but for those who have lasted to the final paragraph, I offer you a recommendation.
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