Forget the movie, read the book

Rating: 5/10 (19 May 2006)

Everything about this movie did not feel right. Tom Hank's Robert Langdon is staid, boring and that awful haircut did not help either. Watching Audrey Tatou stumble her way through the movie was especially painful because you know she is better than that. Their on screen chemistry is non-existent, almost as if watching a father teaching his daughter and I think even the latter would be more interesting.
Ron Howard's might do well with feel-good American movies but a European thriller is probably not his thing. Watching the movie feels like I am tourist taking a short cut tour, rushing through all the attractions of Paris and London. And this movie has a typical American blockbuster feel to it (which I hate). I want to feel the awe and wonderment one will get visiting the Louvre, the Saint-Sulpice, the Roslynn etc. It's like a bad tour guide showing you the Mona Lisa and before you can gaze at it, he already moved on to the next gallery. It's almost Mr. Howard thinks nothing of the these pieces of history - he was just in a rush to tell you this great story.
If one didn't read the book, he wouldn't understand the mystery, the enigma, the magnitude of the story, so much so that some audience laughed at the revelation in the end. Ron Howard failed to capture the philosophical part of the story; the most important part.
So my advise is, forget the movie, read the book, and join the phenomenon.