Entertaining and faithful to the novel but sadly much of the puzzle element has been sidelined

Rating: 6/10 (21 May 2006)

After what appears to be the biggest publicity ever given to any film tie-in to a book ever, "The Da Vinci Code" is now in front of us. Masses of newspaper coverage of the "implications" of the film have been thrust upon, with the question now if the film in itself lives up to its hype or not.
The film surrounds the chase for the "holy grail" by an academic Hanks with the grand-daughter of a murdered museum curator, whilst being chased by the police and an albino monk out to murder them, with "revelations" about the Christian faith abounding to surprise us or not! Personally, i'm not going to bother with the semantics of the novel, seeing that as best left to academics. In any case, that is a main thrust to the novel, although I feel it has been watered down for the film which might have been due to the nature of the limited time of a film, but the director does do a good job in compressing the novel into what he can.
I was disappointed in that rather in the novel we are presented with puzzles to join in with the solving, there is nothing of this really in the film, rather the puzzle and solution is a given. Da Vinci also appears to be sidelined, with little examination of his link to the whole issue, as was done in the book, but the main obvious change to the book is that the film appears to back track on the novel's belief that the "revelations" are fact! In light of the controversial nature of the book this is probably a good thing.
As for the acting, the roles are genuinely adequately done, with Hanks doing very well. It was never going to be too easy, with much excitement removed by the fact that the book is already too widely read to cause mass shock by its release. Nevertheless, the film matches the book fair enough, and to be honest I think much has been over rated about the book which in itself is no classic piece of literature but is a great thrilling read none the less when you first read it.
Overall, an entertaining movie that is faithful enough to the book, but I miss the puzzle element strongly. Most importantly the film and novel should be taken at face value only. Further evaluation is for a more rigorous academic outpost. For those in the know, keep an eye out for cameos by the templar theory authors in the film. Enjoy!