Loved the book - Movie disappointed

Rating: Null/10 (9 June 2006)

I thought the actors did an absolutely wonderful job in their roles, I absolutely love Paul Bettany and I completely lost him as he became the character of Silas. (It impresses me when I can completely lose an actor in a film, and see only the character instead of the actor.) The others did a wonderful job in their respective roles as well, the acting itself gets 10 stars from me, I have no complaints there whatsoever. Having recently devoured the book in just a little over a day, the movie as a whole just didn't work for me though. I believe this is primarily because there were so many, many discrepancies between the book and the movie. At times it was like a completely different story was being told on the screen from the one I'd read in the book. I had a difficult time enjoying the movie because the differences were so glaringly obvious to me - some little, some absolutely huge. I understand that often things are changed here and there to make a movie fit into the time they have available to them, or to make it work better, but I just found the changes to be too much to do the book any sort of justice. On the other hand, my husband, who has not yet read the book, thoroughly enjoyed the movie. He said for him it was similar to National Treasure, a movie he loved. When The Da Vinci Code first opened I'd heard them say on the radio that the movie couldn't possibly live up to all the hype, but that if you went into it with no expectations you'd enjoy the movie version of the story. Apparently I went in expecting it to be too similar to the book, without that expectation perhaps it would have been more enjoyable for me. If it were a standalone movie I think I would have enjoyed it a great deal more because what ruined it for me were the changes to the storyline. From our experience it seems it would be best to watch the movie first if possible, then read the book afterward to learn the details. Either that, or if you've read the book already, be prepared that the movie isn't quite the same story as the one told in the book. I certainly didn't absolutely hate the movie, and would like to watch it again now that I'm prepared for all the changes to the storyline.