The marvelling mystery of religion

Rating: 8/10 (16 June 2009)

After a suspicious murder at the Louvre, Symbologist Robert Langdon (Hanks) and detective Sophie Neveu (Tautou) are on the run whilst they attempt to uncover the mystery of the Holy Grail.
Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code broke barriers with audiences all over the world for its unashamed approach to religion and the concept of what the Holy Grail truly is amongst the ongoing battle between Opus Dei, The Church and the Priory of Sion. Brown certainly has sparked hefty debates but a film adaptation was always inevitable and when released, it caused as much as a storm as when the book was released.
The storm that came with this in 2006 was an ashamed feeling of disapprove for the way director Ron Howard and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman approached this astonishing story. This was banned in numerous countries for its strong opinions and depictions of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene but the uproar came for the film itself. Badly made, unfaithful to source material and atrociously acted and directed, Da Vinci fell into the category of the world's worst blockbusters. Personally, amongst all the negativity, I rather enjoyed watching two fine actors looking to solve a delicate mystery.
There is no doubt that whatever your beliefs, the book is well scripted with a sharp and intriguing motive to keep you hooked right till the shocking finale. Even the long winded debates were interesting as we learnt of different groups in Christianity and the film took all the heavy ideologies onboard in an attempt to portray the book as was written.
At two and a half hours, this film somehow leaves out a vast majority of debated conceptual significance but the importance is all relative come the end. For someone who enjoyed the book, I find the simple explanation as to why this movie "failed" is that it leaves out this hefty amount of debate.
Tom Hanks was criticized for his blunt performance and sadly, the hype was right. There was no spring as there was in Big, no drama like in Cast Away. From the book, it seemed Langdon was a more spirited soul that exuded adventure but there is something lacking here. Tautou is buoyant and necessarily silent in all the right places gives a good pairing along the way with Hanks; one of the final scenes exceptionally sentimental.
Ron Howard, who was also slated, delivers an unsurprising style of mystery. His continuous use of close shots for unsurprised expressions do nothing to help the feel of the film, which means the reliance is all on the plot, which is enjoyable and still exciting.
Yes, it isn't the book but as with the Harry Potter series for example, we all came to our own conclusions and drew up our own imagination so it was never going to be perfect. Da Vinci Code is a good film with a strong conceptual plot that generates debate and excitement.