Talk about "The Da Vinci Code" here:
Review by: Breanne Derby
Plot Summary
Since I am one of the ten people in the world who hasn't read the book by Dan Brown since it rose to best-seller status two years ago, here's a brief summary for the other nine: you know who you are. The Da Vinci Code is about the accidental adventure of Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), a Harvard professor and expert of symbol interpretation, and Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), a cryptologist. They dive into a world of secrecy and cover-up after the murder of Sophie's grandfather. Clues were left behind by Sophie's grandfather in order to allow her and Robert Langdon to solve the puzzle. The secret that Sophie's grandfather died trying to protect, is the true nature of the "holy grail" and its whereabouts; Robert and Sophie must discover it before it is destroyed forever.
Review
This film had a very colorful cast of characters. Many familiar faces were seen including Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, Jean Reno, and Paul Bettany. I can imagine the turnout of actors and actresses willing to put their names on this film stemmed directly from the vast popularity of the book.
This film was entertaining to watch, but it was very long. There were many times when I thought it was going to end, and then it just kept going on and on; I began having flashbacks of LOTR: Return of the King. Despite the fact that my attention was kept throughout the duration of the film, when the film finally arrived at the end, I was glad.
Since I had no prior knowledge of the story behind The Da Vinci Code, I was very entertained by the storyline. There was never a dull moment in this film, and it was not the type of film you could leave to refill your soda during and return unconfused (my friends found out the hard way). The story itself was very extensive and things weren't explained very well, though what was explained was not difficult to understand. Perhaps the creators thought that if they went more in-depth with things they would lose the audience, but as it was things were a little lacking.
What the film lacked in explanation of the storyline, it made up for in special effects. At times they were pleasantly integrated into the film, but there were also times when they were a bit too much and only made things slightly more confusing. The most prominent special effect was one where Langdon's mind would pick out letters and numbers from a phrase, much like Russell Crowe's character in A Beautiful Mind, which, coincidently enough, was also directed by Ron Howard and Paul Bettany also played a secondary character in.
Also throughout the film were "flashbacks" of the childhoods of Robert and Sophie, or of events that took place in biblical times. There are many flashbacks, and it is easy to tell when they are occurring both because of the voice-overs sometimes included in them, and because of the period clothing worn in them.
The one character who didn't quite appear well integrated into the rest of the film was Paul Bettany's character, Silas. He was supposed to be a monk, and as such he wore a robe, but instead of making him appear monk-like, he ended up looking remarkably like a Jedi knight (Anakin circa Episode III) throughout the entire film.
Conclusion
It's hard to draw a conclusion about this film, especially since I haven't read the novel, and to be honest, I don't really feel any desire to read the novel. Yes, it did cause this huge controversy and has been blacklisted by many militant Christians, but I really don't see what the big deal is. I understand that this film/novel is undermining their entire religious foundation, but it is acknowledged as being a work of fiction; I'm sure there are many other works of fiction that prove offensive to Christianity, and none of them have received as much publicity as The Da Vinci Code (except maybe the books in the Harry Potter series). I guess this film was alright. It's certainly not a life-altering work of art, and I wouldn't necessarily encourage anyone to see it, but I wouldn't encourage them not to either.
