Opie Breaks the Code

Rating: 3/10 (20 May 2006)

So, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is a real page turner. It is easy to become engrossed in the novel and lose track of time. Moreover, you become drawn into the mystery and suspense and find yourself running to the research area of the library or google to verify his facts or try to solve the puzzle first only to return to the book more amazed than before. Yes, it is a work a fiction, but has elements of truth and fun puzzles.
The Da Vinci Code directed by Ron Howard, based on the novel by Dan Brown, seemed inconsistent in intent. He attempted to capture the various elements of the novel, but couldn't decide if he wanted there to be an element puzzle solving, so he just let the characters find the puzzle, ponder it for a few seconds and tell us the answers. That's fine, I can understand, he only had three hours. The action scenes were alright; as was the use of ghosting to show elements of the past, at first anyway it got a little old after a while.
Several portions dragged. Several more seemed out of place. Tom Hanks though not believable at first begins to grow on you as Robert Langdon-- sort of like an infected sore, until the final scene where the script of the movie takes a left turn and heads into the land of "let's pacify the people that might riot" by having Langdon do a soliloquy that is somehow at once deeply agnostic, Christian, and entirely out of character. Mlle. Tautou made for an adorable Sophie and I blame the writers and Opie for any problems I had with the Sophie character.
The other characters were passable despite poor direction with the MVP award going to Ian for, though diverging from the text, utterly running away with the movie. There were several scenes, saved by him.
The ending, up until the left turn and then once again when it got on track was alright as were some scenes in the middle. The closing scene managed to conjure a slight sense of adventure and awe that a search for the san grail ought, but otherwise I was glad to see the credits.
Overall, it gets a "Meh" and a shrug. Not the greatest book-to-movie but it's not VanHellsing or anything. I wouldn't go see it again in a theater, but I might rent it or watch it on cable. If you were a fan of the book or are curious it might be worth the price of admission just to see what they did with it, if you are a die-hard fan of the book... you might want to bring some Zoloft.