I Found it Engrossing and Moving

Rating: 9/10 (20 May 2006)

I tried to avoid the reviews and hoopla surrounding this movie. I found Dan Brown's book to be plodding, and, in the end, it lost me, even though I have read a fair amount of recent scholarship about the role of Mary Magdelene and the Gnostic gospels, in general. There is no new information in the book, and even Brown's conjectures are not his.
But the history nerd in me enjoyed the movie, and the best part for me is Audrey Tautou's performance as she gradually awakens to her real origins, and what her life from the end of this movie, on, may be like.
In the sold out theater I was in, there was what seemed like respectful silence at the end of the movie. . .no applause, which sometimes happens on the opening weekend of a movie, but my sense was that the audience was moved, and it also seemed like about half the people got their cellphones out and were calling people about the film.
If you are literary at all, you will like this flick better than the book, I think.