The Da Vinci Code: The Movie

Rating: 8/10 (22 May 2006)

After all the hoopla and controversy parting the waters between the religious right and Catholic Church and the avid devotees of Dan Brown's multi-million dollar success book, the movie version is finally here. THE DA VINCI CODE makes a good movie - and that is enough.
Director Ron Howard has assembled a good international cast, trusted the screenplay to Akiva Goldsman, and in fine Hollywood style has transformed an interesting premise of a story from Dan Brown's interested though unsophisticatedly written blockbuster into a suspense thriller. The story of a murder in the Louvre leading a former flatfoot detective turned writer of symbology and a French cryptographer on a chase involving the Vatican, the Opus Dei society, and the Priory guarding the Holy Grail is full of terrific visualizations of some of the encrypted secrets of Brown's novel and in the end the movie allows the viewer to follow the interesting story much more easily than did the book.
The settings are magnificent (cinematography by Salvatore Totino), the musical score by Hans Zimmer sweeps the story along embracing all aspects of the atmosphere, and the visual effects department has done a fine job with some tough tasks. The actors take their characters in stride, given that many of them are over the top figures: Ian McKellen will satisfy every reader's vision of Sir Leigh Teabing; Paul Bettany is appropriately crazy as Silas; Jean Reno offers a Captain Fache who manages to hold things together; Audrey Tatou turns a fine spin as the all-important Sophie Neveu; and Tom Hanks sleepwalks through his rather innocuous conception of Robert Langdon. And the ending is a rather sappy sellout not found in the book - but this is Hollywood...
This film may set box office records - which seems to be the point in making it - and serves to prove what good PR work can do for a movie. Many will put down 'The Da Vinci Code' because of religious reasons or other reasons, but in the end it is a just a good story well told - not a great movie but an entertaining one. Recommendation: a good 2 1/2 hour diversion, but not one to rush out to see until the crowds dwindle a bit. Grady Harp