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The Da Vinci Code review
2006.06.04 — Entertainment | Movies | Movie Reviews | by Andrew Cole
A DEVICE IN THE DOC. [official site] |
Tom Hanks is a symbol-memorizing, letter-juggling scholar called in to help the French police solve a murder (as you do) in The Da Vinci Code. Audrey Tautou is the French police cryptographer who decides to help him, since the dead man is her estranged grandfather. I'm one of the 14 non-rural-Chinese people who have not read the book of the same name by Dan Brown, so I can judge the movie based solely on its own merits... and the seven or eight documentaries I've seen on the subject.
The story concerns a certain deity and his legacy on earth, which may or may not be contained in a vessel of some sort, which may or may not be guarded by some zealous and secretive organization and sought after by some other zealous and secretive organization. If you've seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, you're probably with me so far.
If you've seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, you're probably with me so far. |
Like many zealous and secretive organizations in the movies, these will kill you if you know too much but creep around in the dark menacingly if you're simply seeking to know too much. It seems like a policy of threatening people who think there is a conspiracy would not be nearly as a effective as a policy of, say, ridiculing them publicly as nut cases, but maybe they do that too and we just don't see it.
Paul Bettany [is] the Creeping Menace who is an albino, an ex-con, a hitman, a zealot, and—let's face it—probably gay. |
It begs the question, of course, as to how these people got to know too much in the first place and why they weren't knocked off sooner, such as before they could spill the beans to our heroes. Even more so, it begs the question of why the conspiracy doesn't try to seduce the knowledge-seeker into its ranks with promises to reveal all. If you make someone a member of your conspiracy, you have a lot more leverage over them if they're thinking of going public later.
Hanks and Tautou get support from Jean Reno as the dutiful detective, Ian McKellen as the eccentric old scholar, and Paul Bettany as the Creeping Menace who is an albino, an ex-con, a hitman, a zealot, and—let's face it—probably gay. Everyone does a fine job, altho Hanks and Tautou are actually a bit flat thruout.
She's a police cryptologist, remember, but she literally sits idly by while Hanks decodes what amounts to a newspaper Jumble. |
Once again the female lead is basically just along for the ride, but I really expected something more from an acclaimed mystery (as opposed to an action picture). Tautou starts out promisingly as the one who gets the conspiracy ball rolling and then quickly slips into the role of asking Tom Hanks to explain everything. She's a police cryptologist, remember, but she literally sits idly by while Hanks decodes what amounts to a newspaper Jumble.
The film was directed by Ron Howard, and his greasy fingerprints are all over the very minimal action sequences. The car reversing chase is edited so haphazardly that he might as well have just inserted a card reading "And then they got away."
It was adapted to the screen by Akiva Goldman, who for some reason is still allowed to write screenplays even after Batman & Robin and Lost in Space. |
It was adapted to the screen by Akiva Goldman, who for some reason is still allowed to write screenplays even after Batman & Robin and Lost in Space. The Da Vinci Code and his other better work on A Beautiful Mind and Cinderella Man suggest that he can do good work as long as he's constrained to adapting the actual words of others and not just the ideas.
I found myself suitably intrigued by the cleverness of the mysteries and the connections the author makes (all, obviously, present in the original novel), particularly with things that I know definitely have no connection.
"I've got to get to a library... fast!" |
I only found myself wishing for more direct action by the heroes and not the feeling of being swept along by artificial means ("They're here! Run!" and "There's only one place I can think of where knights were interred by popes." and "I've decided, quite arbitrarily, to betray you now."). Still, there is only a little awkward dialog (one of them: "I've got to get to a library... fast!") and the violence is sharp enough to be shocking when it comes.
Overall, it's was fun and intriguing, certainly more complex than most mysteries and more internally logical than most treasure hunts.
f e e d b a c k
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