Reasonable Adaptation

Rating: 7/10 (28 October 2006)

While in Paris for a lecture, the specialist in symbols, Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), is called on to the Louvre by Captain Bezu Fache (Jean Reno) to help the investigation of the murder of the curator Jacques Saunière (Jean-Pierre Marielle). Before dying, Saunière wrote codes, symbols, a pentagram and a Fibonacci number sequence inclusive using his own blood. Sooner Saunière's granddaughter, the cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou) arrives with a message to Langdon, advising him that he is in danger and suspect for the murder of Saunière. Langdon and Sophie join their knowledge and follow leads to one of the greatest secrets of mankind history, the descendants of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene.
The novel and bestseller of Dan Brown was one of the most intriguing books that I had read about a couple of years ago. I was curious about the adaptation to the cinema of this complex and detailed story, and I found it only reasonable, with beautiful locations and a total lack of emotions. The cast uses great names, but first of all the physical appearances of Robert Langdon, the "red haired" Sophie Neveu and the "strong black" Bezu Fache do not correspond with the description of the characters in the novel. Further, Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou do not show any chemistry, but the always excellent Paul Bettany is perfect performing Silas. Of course there are simplifications in the story, it would be impossible to translate all the subplots to the screenplay, but I still found the movie quite confused and presenting too much information to be followed by a viewer that has not read the book. In the end, "The Da Vinci Code" frustrated my expectations. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "O Código Da Vinci" ("The Da Vinci Code")