Da Vinci Code, The (2006)

1.5 out of 4

Starring: Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, Jean Reno, Paul Bettany, Alfred Molina

Director: Ron Howard

Time: 149 mins

Viewed: Mega Movies at Brunswick Square, East Brunswick, New Jersey

Adaptation of Dan Brown's mega-bestselling novel stars Hanks as Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology, who gets drawn into a grisly murder down at the Louvre Museum in Paris. The victim is the curator, Jacques Sauniere, who leaves behind all sorts of cryptic messages and mathematical puzzles for Langdon and Sauniere's own granddaughter, Sophie Neveu (Tautou), a cryptologist, to solve. Eventually, they enlist the aid of Sir Leigh Teabing (McKellen), a noted historian, who aids them in unveiling the greatest secret of all time: the truth behind the Holy Grail. How one thinks of this film depends on whether one has read the book or not - I have read it, and found the movie to be an uninspired mess, with a last hour that slows right down and made me nod off to sleep! To be fair, director Howard and writer Akiva Goldsman had a tough task condensing the flavour of Brown's novel into two and a half hours, and for the first 90 minutes the pace is brisk and the puzzle-solving fun (if diluted from the book). But why did the last hour have to be so slow?? Howard's limitations as a director are in evidence here: while competent, he is never any more than workmanlike and commercial (and I generally like his work!). McKellen ignites the few scenes he is in, but Hanks (in one of his worse roles) and Tautou (a far cry from her delightful Amelie) are both soporific and bland. Luckily, Hanks' unusual hairstyle is not as distracting as I thought it would be. For those who haven't read the novel, film may be alternately confusing, compelling, shocking, or preposterous. Take your pick. Actually, go read the book. It's more entertaining.

(c) Joe Wong (21 May 2006)