Glaring illogic and way too many climaxes

Rating: Null/10 (14 June 2006)

Those who watch this after reading the book will think it's just fine, but that's because there's a fair bit of information that is in the book, not in the film, that gives readers an overview that helps to understand the film. Those who haven't read the book will find many of the plot twists confusing, and will have a hard time discerning between the protectors of the Holy Grail, and those out to destroy it. There several plot contrivances that are plainly illogical.
For example, we are supposed to believe that, in the very short time between the initial murder and the arrival of the investigators, the lead investigator was contacted by his bishop and told, falsely, that the murderer had confessed to the bishop and who the murderer was.
BUT...this information had to come from somebody who'd seen the murder scene BEFORE the police did, and then passed this scene info on to the bishop WITH the intent of creating a cover-up, all done because the victim had written the falsely accused killer's name on the floor before he died.
EXCEPT...that what the victim wrote was to contact this person (for help), NOT that this person 'is my killer'!
Come on now! This is almost as illogical as the people in horror films who go ahead and investigate a noise the basement when they know for a fact that a psycho is on the loose in the area. And this is only one of several inconsistencies! Plus there are at least 4 separate climactic moments in the last 30 minutes. If this hadn't come from Ron Howard and the big Hollywood movie machine, it would have been panned terribly rather than getting mostly mediocre reviews on average. However it does have great art direction and cinematography, and very good performances in general.