Decent Movie, But Not Worthy Of The Controversy It Spawned

Rating: 6/10 (27 October 2008)

Give credit to Dan Brown (author of the novel on which this movie is based) on a number of counts. First, he did good research into the non-canonical gospels (especially, since they were referenced in the film, to those of Philip and Mary Magdalene). Second, he showed his skill as a novelist by weaving a creative tale around the question of why they're non-canonical, combining the presence of secret societies (Opus Dei and the Knights Templar) along with a hardly unique interpretation of Da Vinci's painting "The Last Supper" to produce a novel which obviously caught the public's attention. Then, he showed his skills as a businessman by selling the novel to Hollywood, which ended up putting out this mildly suspenseful, largely well acted and mostly entertaining action/suspense/conspiracy theory movie.
Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon (a professor of Religious Symbology - of which there is no such beast!) and Audrey Tautou as Sophie are both quite good and worth watching. The story revolves around the search for the Holy Grail (but Monty Python this ain't!). In this case, the Holy Grail is Mary Magdalene's tomb, and the conspiracy revolves around the efforts of the Roman Catholic Church to suppress the truth about Jesus being merely human rather than divine - a figure who, according to the movie, was married to Mary Magdalene and had children with her. Thus, there is also the question of who Jesus' descendants in today's world are. It stirred too much controversy in my view. It certainly has an anti-Catholic tone to it, I admit. The Catholic Church is dismissed as oppressive and misogynistic, involved in murder to keep its secret (and therefore its power). Still, the extreme reaction of the Catholic Church (and some fundamentalist Protestant sects) probably gave more credibility to the movie than it deserved. As a Protestant pastor, I found nothing here that would shake my faith, and the movie never quite goes to the extreme of saying that the story was true. As Langdon says, "what's really important is what you believe." In other words, whatever your faith is - it's a matter of faith! (And remember - this movie is based on a novel, not a history text book. It's a piece of entertainment!)
Personally I thought the movie a bit too long. The ending, revolving around Langdon actually finding Magdalene's tomb, wasn't really necessary (except, I suppose, to be faithful to the novel) and the revelation of Sophie's identity was anti-climactic. I figured it would turn out that way. (Another nod to Brown's obvious acquaintance with the state of contemporary religion is his choice of the name "Sophie" for the female protagonist - an obvious nod to the "sophia" movement in modern feminist Christianity.) It's also yet another example of the "religion is the cause of all the evil in the world" mentality that is so yawningly cliché in today's society. Overall it's pretty good, although not really deserving of the controversy it spawned, which probably lent it more credence than it should have had. (The secular world would say "if the church is so against it, it must be true.") I'd give it a 6/10