Dig, if you will, the picture: a highly controversial book that's managed to withstand the wrath of the Catholic Church and Christian protest groups en masse, while basking in the exonerative glory of a highly sensationalized lawsuit, and you have a finely rendered portrait primed for mass seduction.
The Da Vinci Code has spent 162 weeks and counting atop the New York Times bestseller list, and sold more than 60 million copies, easily becoming one of the most highly anticipated films of 2006 and a zeitgeist for the new millennium. Call it an adult version of Harry Potter hysteria; Dan Brown's vainglorious book-to-film phenomenon has polished its illustrious coffers with the tantalizing allure of a virgin franchise, a bankably-proven, mega-watt star leading a stellar cast in a worldwide opening, and a director with a string of respectable hits.
Tom Hanks plays Dr. Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbology professor who rushes to the Louvre after a murder has been committed. He joins forces with police cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou) in a breathless theological treasure hunt across Paris and London, with the Holy Grail serving as the mother of all prizes.
The Da Vinci Code posits the incendiary notion that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and fathered a child that was born after his crucifixion. Adding fuel to the fire and brimstone is the charge that a covert sect within the Roman Catholic Church, Opus Dei, will go so far as to murder members of the Priory of Sion who guard this secret.
Yet under Ron Howard's soft-handed guidance, the archly heretical notions found in Dan Brown’s page-turning airplane reader is coated in cloying political correctness. Opus Dei is now treated as a faction operating on its own accord, without the knowledge and approval of the Church. Also revised, Dan Brown’s code-busting champion, Robert Langdon, is transformed from a poetic pragmatist into the turgid voice of reason, no longer acting as a sounding board for contentious conspiracy theories, but serving to deflect them as a plodding everyman with a baggy eyed skepticism - sputtering that - the greatest cover up in history" is nothing more than, an old wives tale.
Hanks suffers under the flaccid material he's given, sporting an invisible question mark above a weary, permanently pained expression. The sexual frisson between Hanks and Tautou's characters are all but expunged in the film version: stripped to a G-rated kinship. And Hanks, with his unflatteringly long locks, is certainly no sex symbol, and nothing like the book's description of Langdon as a "Harrison Ford in Harris tweed."
Paul Bettany and Jean Reno, two extremely talented actors, are largely wasted in their roles, depicted as captivating, yet two-dimensional caricatures: Bettany - all wild eyed, grinning rictus - plays murdering albino monk Silas, while Reno as Captain Fache becomes a merciless flatfoot hell bent on hunting down the Fibonacci-descrambling, big-screen, academic version of Scully and Mulder. The only cast member to escape a mediocre fate is a scene-stealing Ian McKellen who bites into his juicy material playing grail enthusiast Sir Leigh Teabing.
Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man) has built his reputation crafting well executed, albeit safe films, and he does little to stray from his tried and true formula. The film begins at a nice clip, quickly moving through the major plot points of the book. Yet the relentless pace of Brown’s pulpy thriller falls somewhat flat on the big screen under screenwriter Akiva Goldsman’s adaptation and verges into the territory of downright hokum.
In staying so slavishly faithful to the book, Howard has the impossible task of keeping the momentum barreling along under the anchor of weighty exposition and insufferably lackluster dialogue that’s crucial to the understanding of the film. As Hanks declares in a corny religious monologue in the film's final act, "the only thing that matters is what you believe", which may very well be a pre-emptive strike against the film's naysayers.
To be fair, if you judge the film on how well it works as an adaptation of Brown's boffo bestseller, or with the cynicism of an art house critic, you will be sorely disappointed. If it’s revelation you seek, the film won’t lead you to any epiphanies. And be warned, The Da Vinci Code does not profess to be the high art which it features in the film.
If you can brush the bloated buzz aside and enter the dark of the theatre hoping for a fun, well made, capably acted treasure hunt thriller with a soaring soundtrack and sweeping cinematography, then expect to be satisfied. In short, The Da Vinci Code certainly does'n’t perform miracles, but it does manage to miraculously bestow reverential status on a decent popcorn thriller.
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