Good movie making

Rating: 5/10 (4 June 2006)

Ron Howard is one of the best directors in Hollywood at the moment. In this movie, he took one of the most popular modern books, and turned it into a faithful adaptation. Unfortunately for Ron, the book turned out to be not that good.
I biggest thing I have noticed with Dan Brown's work is that he tends to use a lot of false tension and false climaxes, something that does not transfer well into movies, unless the director uses the same cheap style. Ron Howard did not sink to those levels.
After all the bad mouthing about Tom Hanks, he did do a good job of portraying Robert Langdon. He transformed himself well into the role. The standouts in the cast, though, were Ian McKellan (Teabing) and Paul Bettany (Silas). McKellan stole the scene every time, and played up Teabing's eccentric side, while Bettany showed the pain that Silas has.
Kudos to the makers for keeping the foreign languages in, as too many American movies simplify so that everyone speaks English. Good work from Audrey Tautou and Jean Reno.
I still remember the discussion in Project Greenlight Australia, when discussing which script to pick. You can't make a good movie with a bad story. I think that sums up The Da Vinci Code.