Little suspense in ‘The Da Vinci Code’
With so many winning elements contributing to this movie, it is surprising that the result is a lackluster, even tedious, 2.5 hours. The director, actors, and even producer merit the hype this film has received. Yet the hype really comes from Dan Brown’s bestselling novel of the same name. Does the movie stand on its own? In this critic’s humble opinion – no. Suffering from allegiance to the novel and gratuitous macabre, ‘The Da Vinci Code’ is more stuffy than exciting.
I listened to the book on CD, and while often half-asleep on a road trip, so the story is honestly vague to me at best. Yet I’m not criticizing the book’s suspense factor – I enjoyed it thoroughly, though I can’t say as much for the movie, starring Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, and Ian McKellen.
Hanks plays Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist who is summoned to a murder scene at the famous Louvre museum. A murdered curator has left a riddle that Langdon and French cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Tautou) are meant to solve. They discover ancient codes and devices which lead to what is touted as ‘the greatest mystery of all time.’
I think that Brown’s novel received so much hype that director Ron Howard and company decided to strictly adhere to plotlines and story conventions. The result is a movie that is too long due to abundant dialogue explaining and explaining. Ian McKellen’s character, Sir Leigh Teabing, who mentors Langdon and Neveu, explains so much in this film, that at one point I had the impulse to look at my watch rather than ponder one more historic postulation.
This movie also wore me down because of overemphasis on dark worship. One character, Silas (Paul Bettany), is a tragic character that worships masochistically. And while this fact relates to the story, do we really need to watch five to ten minutes of the rituals? Fat like this needed to be trimmed in the editing suite.
‘The Da Vinci Code’ will likely be seen by fans of the novel, and they may even really like the film. Yet the movie doesn’t satisfy – it plods and depresses. Next piece of hype please! I’m tired of this one.Grade: D+
Chris Blakesley is a film critic for the Utah Statesman. Send comments to cblakes@cc.usu.edu. Check out his blog at: cblakes.wordpress.com.