Review of The Da Vinci Code (2006) by Ola G — 22 Jun 2018

Jacques Saunière, the Louvre's curator, is pursued through the Grand Gallery by an albino Catholic monk named Silas (Paul Bettany), who demands the location of the Priory's "keystone" to find and destroy the Holy Grail. Saunière gives him a false lead and is murdered. When the police arrive, they find his body posed like Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. The police captain, Bezu Fache (Jean Reno), sends his lieutenant, Jérôme Collet, to summon American symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), in the midst of signing autographs after one of his public talks, to examine Saunière's body. At the museum, Langdon is shown the body, and a secret message, readable only by blacklight, that contains an out-of-order Fibonacci sequence. Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), a police cryptographer and Saunière's granddaughter, reveals to Langdon that Fache planted a tracker on him after finding the words "P.S. Find Robert Langdon" at the end of Saunière's secret message, leading Fache to believe Langdon murdered Saunière. The two get rid of the tracker, distracting the police, and sneak around the Louvre, finding more clues in Leonardo da Vinci's works, eventually leading to Langdon to deduce that Saunière was the grand master of the Priory of Sion...

The critics consensus states: "What makes Dan Brown's novel a best seller is evidently not present in this dull and bloated movie adaptation of The Da Vinci Code." The film was poorly received at the Cannes Film Festival, where it debuted. Michael Medved gave the film a negative review, citing it as "an attack on religion". Anthony Lane of The New Yorker addressed the concerns of Catholics in his film review, stating that the film "is self-evident, spirit-lowering tripe that could not conceivably cause a single member of the flock to turn aside from the faith." In his Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin called the film "a letdown in every respect." Director Howard noted that the overwhelmingly negative reviews were "frustrating" to him. Conversely, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times (who had spoken very negatively of the novel) gave the film three out of four stars, stating "The movie works; it's involving, intriguing and constantly seems on the edge of startling revelations." Of the storyline, he also commented "Yes, the plot is absurd, but then most movie plots are absurd. That's what we pay to see." Lawrence Toppman of The Charlotte Observer, who also liked the film, gave it three and a half out of four stars and noted "unlike most Hollywood blockbusters, this one assumes audience members will be smart." Although many critics gave mixed to negative reviews of the film, critics praised the performances of McKellen as well as Bettany. On the "Worst Movies of 2006" episode of the television show Ebert & Roeper (January 13, 2007), guest critic Michael Phillips (sitting in for the recovering Roger Ebert) listed the film at No. 2. The film earned a Razzie Award nomination for Ron Howard as Worst Director, but lost to M. Night Shyamalan for Lady in the Water.

I haven´t red the novel, as I didn´t feel it was my sort of story when it came out, but I do like the story of The Holy Graal and the layers of Opus Dei, the institution of the Roman Catholic Church. With this storyline and solid actors Tom Hanks, Audrey Tatou, Jean Reno, Paul Bettany.

And Ian McKellen you would think this movie would present us something tangible and intriguing, but this is as well a Ron Howard movie. He has never had that movie magic in him creating films that stands out offering something more unique. Howard gives us average films, but nothing more. I reckon Spielberg would´ve been a better choice as a director in this case. The character development and storyline feels rushed and it feels like Howard can´t wait to just do the action sequences. Hanks feels slightly miscast and he doesn´t seem to feel comfortable in the role. The others are ok, but I don´t think they are bringing their A-game and I do think that´s partly Howard´s fault. I personally don´t care about the correctness or if it´s historically accurate, it´s a movie, go with it. I like that the film ask questions concerning religion and the Roman Catholic Church, that is of interest and I do like the thought provoking messages in the film. "The Da Vinci Code" is an ok thriller, nothing more, nothing less.

Trivia: The film, like the book, was considered controversial. It was met with especially harsh criticism by the Roman Catholic Church for the accusation that it is behind a two-thousand-year-old cover-up concerning what the Holy Grail really is and the concept that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene were married and that the union produced a daughter, and for its treatment of the organizations Priory of Sion and Opus Dei. Many members urged the laity to boycott the film. In the book, Dan Brown states that the Priory of Sion and "...all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate". The film grossed $224 million in its worldwide opening weekend and a total of $758 million worldwide, becoming the second-highest-grossing film of 2006 behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. It was followed by two sequels, Angels & Demons (2009) and Inferno (2016).