3 things regarding this film

Rating: 5/10 (6 August 2007)

1) The cast. Often using a great cast can be a huge mistake, and among that some of them miscast! Tom Hanks is still in Forrest, Audrey Tautou is too "petite", Ian McKellen is too tall to think of him as a weak cripple, and Jean Reno is far too energetic to play a religious cop. Don't get me wrong, they all have proved being GREAT actors... it's just the movie didn't suit them. Irène Jacob would have done a great Sophie Neveu (perhaps a bit 'old') and Robson Green a magnificent Robert Langdon (excepting the FACT that he's English, maybe), probably Peter O'Toole would have done a more gloomy Leigh Teabing...
2) The film itself. I'm one of those who read the book first, so guess I'm pretty disappointed. The film begins so slow, focusing on non-important issues (Silas' whipping over Fibonacci's Sequence?? Silas' past over the Spring Rite of Sophie's grandpa??), where it should go slow goes fast, and where it should go fast goes tremendously slow. No rhetoric, plain voices all over the movie, and for music Libera would have been better. It's not that the score is bad, no, but they chose a star cast, why not a star boy-choir band? One point in favor: the flashbacks and reminiscences in time while the characters speak or think, pretty good move!
3) Beliefs. I'm raised a Christian Catholic, I know my religion in deep, this is a NOVEL; please, unless you're a living Silas, don't watch it over a historical, facts or religious basis: you'll be disappointed and enraged. Enjoy it for what it is, 'fiction'. I have an open mind, so I quote Mr. Langdon: IT CAN BE POSSIBLE. Let the mystery sensation, the what-if feeling assault you, having in mind it's a drama-suspense story. You'd be longing to be in the Louvre or in Paris, chasing the Rose Line...
So, 5 stars out of 10 in my personal opinion. My recommendation: if you read the book, don't watch it; if you HAVEN'T read the book, watch it, THEN read the book... Your mind will be more vivid in recreating scenarios and faces...