Just OK

Rating: Null/10 (23 May 2006)

This is not a great movie and it's not going to win Tom Hanks another Oscar nomination, but I quite enjoyed it. There! I've said it! I enjoyed it. I do appreciate that it's really rather naff to admit to liking this movie, but truly, it's not as bad as the critics made out. I've passed worse time in a cinema on a Friday night after a long tedious week at work. Had I seen it at a time when my brain was functional, possibly I would be less kind.
I won't go through the plot again, so if you are one of the ten people on the face of the planet who don't know what it's about, read another review. The story premise is interesting, and ties together some history, lots of myths and many half truths in a way that suggests it could be plausible...maybe. It seems to get people riled up for some reason I can't quite fathom, but then I'm not a practising anything, let alone Christian.
I read the book, which I thought was just appallingly written (yet somehow I couldn't put it down...) and I thought the movie stuck to it pretty closely. Probably too closely, as some acknowledgement that the screen and the page are different mediums might have helped the rather leaden dialogue. But the action trots along briskly, the editing is good, and the French actors all did their stuff in a suitably Gallic manner. I rather enjoyed Jean Reno's impersonation of a bloodhound, and Marie Francoise Audollent stood out in a small part. There were some pretty pictures of the Louvre's glass pyramid, and it made me nostalgic to see Lincoln Cathedral (a few miles from where I used to live in England) standing in for Westminster Abbey. Apparently the Abbey wouldn't let them film inside, but Lincoln Cathedral will do anything for money and the Chapter House, as shown here, is certainly worth a visit.
As for any controversy - it seemed to me they bent over backwards to be non-controversial, with Hanks character Langdon, and McKellen's character Teabing giving lengthy expositions of balancing opposing views to the point of tedium. In fact, the movie would have been improved by more controversy, not less. Sir Ian was wonderful, worth the admission price alone. Without him, the movie would be very dull and I get the feeling he's had rather a lot of fun with it. But far and away the best reason to see The Da Vinci Code - as opposed to reading it - is because you will be spared Dan Brown's terminally banal prose.
Not too bad a movie. But I doubt I'd ever watch it again.