The Da Vinci Code – Ron Howard
With a stellar cast, beloved source material, and magnificent scenery, The Da Vinci Code should have been, unequivocally, the movie of the year, if not the decade. Dan Brown’s controversial novel of the same name was in itself a publicity machine, drawing animated debate from any laical reader to the most influential of religious leaders. Director Ron Howard worked very closely and carefully with author Dan Brown to bring his book to life in a succinct and suspenseful manner, but this Cannes Film Festival opener may have been more of a cash cow for Sony Pictures than the profound piece that it set out to be. True to form, it was the most profitable film of the year, scoring big in foreign markets and anticipating huge gains with the release of the DVD pre-holiday shopping season.
The adventure begins with a murder – the camera follows the gentle curator of the Louvre after hours, running from a dark, cloaked character. When his body is found, it is in a very peculiar position – Leonardo Da Vinci’s Vitruvian man. The puzzle-chase goes from painting to painting in the Louvre, getting deeper and deeper into history and mysticism. Tom Hanks plays an unsuspecting Harvard professor of symbols who gets wrapped up in this mystery with Sophie, played by Audrey Tautou, an equally unsuspecting cryptology specialist with the French police. Their quest to understand Sophie’s grandfather’s pre-mortem placement of his body pushes them into the paths of various entities searching for an elusive answer to an unknown ultimate question. Ian McKellan and Paul Bettany deliver the best performances of the film as their respective characters: English scholar Sir Teabing, and abiding Opus Dei monk Silas. Ian McKellan is both adorable and dangerous, drawing viewer’s sympathy with his polio until the trickle of clues of his madness ends with a deluge of insanity in front of Westminster Abbey. Paul Bettany is creepy and menacing as a monk/assassin, inflicting upon himself the same violence he brings to others without any remorse.
Despite negative press from the media community, there is no denying that The Da Vinci Code is a pleasurable novel and film. Many critics are just going to have to accept this film as a guilty pleasure, one that follows a recipe well, without fully exploiting its potential. Ron Howard did everything right: he places points of suspense where they aught to be; schedules character reveals at the appropriate moments; he even highlights clues for the audience to grasp on to before they lose interest in the film. The one thing that he neglected to see was that his film is not comparable to the enormous hubbub surrounding the religious and social issues of the novel. With even the most peaceful Christian communities examining the hypotheses raised by Dan Brown as if they could be true, it would have been nearly impossible to make as mind-blowing a film as the ubiquitous debates over the subject of Robert Langdon and Sophie’s adventure.
In every aspect, The Da Vinci Code is worthy of your $5 rental, for everything from the beautiful settings in Europe to the curious portrayals of secondary characters. Viewers may not find anything significantly life-changing if they were expecting the film to be as moving as the novel, but they will be duly entertained, as Hollywood studio films are supposed to do. The score by Hans Zimmer is fitting, but also very predictable. The visuals are an A, thanks to the help of excellent filming locations in old cathedrals and castles in England, Scotland and France. The sound and acting are B’s, just being acceptable without being great. Overall, the film is pretty enjoyable, a B, but it just does not offer anything exceptional to hurdle it over a B+.
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