Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle! It was great!

Rating: 10/10 (25 May 2006)

I was one of those who considered myself too cool to read the book, and on hearing the bad reviews from Cannes I didn't exactly have great expectations for the movie, either. So when I saw the movie I was very surprised to find out what the story was actually about, and I totally loved it. This book and movie may be one of the greatest contributions to the debate on religion ever. And I mean EVER. It espouses a progressive, alternative version of Christianity, where the road to the divine goes through the woman. And while I am entirely aware that both the story and the Priory of Sion are fictitious, the movie (and hence the book) makes a surprisingly convincing case. Even if its specific argumentation is made up, the account it gives of the early history of Christianity may in fact be fairly accurate. Christianity, with its focus on marriage, has always essentially been an almost "courtly love" kind of sentiment, intended among other things to protect the woman from the misogynistic cultures of 2000 years ago. However, those cultures were stronger than the Christian messages, and so Christianity was quickly warped into something where the woman was basically responsible for evil, original sin, etc., etc. Dan Brown's story goes the errand of restoring the woman's status and full equality, and this is a totally good and progressive and admirable thing. People who opine against this book and movie only risk exposing themselves as adherents to a misogynist world view, and I for one am tremendously gratified that this book and movie have had such massive success. It demonstrates that there are large parts of the culture today that embrace this progressive message, and that gives me increased hope for the future and betterment of mankind. Well done, Dan Brown!
As for the movie itself, yes, there were a couple of things that were not as perfect as they might have been (mainly the disparate ages of the two main characters), but to me the power of the message overshadows any minor shortcomings the movie may have had. I found all the actors to be perfectly adequate, and the movie engaged me fully from start to finish. I have no choice but to award this movie the coveted 10 out of 10 rating.