A lot of fun

Rating: 8/10 (15 September 2006)

Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou star in long-awaited big-screen adaptation of Dan Brown's famous novel.
Dan Brown's novels have become rather legendary in their own right, and thanks to the stunning success of his 3rd novel, The Da Vinci Code, have made their author a multi-millionaire.
The Da Vinci code was set in France, and featured a Harvard scholar, Robert Langdon, and a French policewoman, Sophie Neveu, and its principle subject was that of the Catholic religion and its secrets and history.
Hanks is Langdon, and Tautou is Neveu. The story starts out with Langdon being interrupted at an engagement by the police, who wish his help solving a crime. However, events take an unexpected turn and before he knows it he is battling Gendarmes, the Catholic church, and unseen forces of apparent evil.
The great strength of the novel was its electric pace and popcorn action - it was thrilling stuff, and gripped the reader from the first line onwards. Truth is the big screen version captures this surprisingly well. The pace is just as quick, and while plenty of aspects of the novel didn't make it, the adaptation is overall surprisingly faithful.
Furthermore, the novel had plenty of major characters, and they all make it to the big screen intact - Ian McKellen's Leigh Teabing, Alfred Molina's Biship Arangosa, Paul Bettany's brilliant Silas, and Jean Reno's Fache. The cast for this one was definitely heavyweight.
That said, the acting wasn't particularly good in this. McKellen was decent enough, and Jean Reno did a good job of a cop on the edge, but the 2 main protagonists Hanks and Tautou were frankly average - in places Hanks visibly struggles with the dialogue, and seems to be looking elsewhere for inspiration.
But the strength of the novel was the plot, and that makes it into translation pretty well - the one word which describes this movie is 'entertaining' - it's a fast rip roaring yarn which may take itself a bit seriously but manages to engage well for its duration.
The direction helps hugely - it's non-stop and never slows down to ponder - there are no boring sequences in evidence.
And if you overlook the staple acting, and the fact there are apparently occasional leaps of bizarre logic (Which the movie couldn't explain in the way the novel could) then it's a really engaging movie which should grab your attention.