The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown's much read (though not by me) book comes to the big screen. Big stars (Hanks, McKellen, Prochnow, Reno, Tautou); big name director (Howard) and screenwriter (Goldsman); controversey (the descedants of Jesus and the Catholic Church); big budget - how could anything go wrong?

In a way, this could be seen as Hollywood's response to Mel Gibson's hugely successful Passion of the Christ. The secular Hollywood producers take on the devoutly religious Gibson with a 'bible' of their own. I'll leave that in the air for consideration, as the film itself is rather pedestrian and does make efforts to distance the Church itself from the actions of its constituent shadowy parts.

The plot: Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is a professor of religious symbolism currently in Paris to promote his book on the feminine representations in religion. Summoned to the Louvre to see the gruesome self-defaced corpse of a curator, Langdon joins forces with French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), and learns the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion - a secret society descended from the Knights Templar and charged with the protection of the blood line of Jesus Christ.

French inspector Bezu Fache (Jean Reno) passionately believes that Langdon is guilty of the murder and tries to ensnare him, yet he escapes with the aid of Neveu and thus begins the problem-solving, car-chase, jet-setting, knee-scraping adventure to track down the secret of the message the curator left in invisible ink next to his body. Needless to say that the codes are stored in the works of Leonardo and other great thinkers of ano domini history.

It must be said though that Ian McKellen is the bright light and clearly steals the film; his portrayal of Sir Leigh Teabing is sensational and done with just the right amount of mischieviousness.

There's no need to give more details of the plot. Suffice to say the I hope that the twists in the book are better crafted than those of the film, and I might just read it when I'm on holiday in a couple of weeks to find out.

In summary: A pedestrian movie with an interesting plot, some real heart-stopper moments and great locations. A couple of good performances and lots of conversation afterwards about 'could it be true' and 'Wow, she was pretty boring here, not anywhere near as good as in Amelie'.

The Casablanca comparison: Ah yes, Bogart and Bergman - now there was a divine blood line. Unfortunately, Hanks and Tautou don't have even a milliamp of current between them, nothing. The comparison I'd make here though is the French policeman - Louis (Claude Reins) serves his Vichy masters, content to take what he is told and apply it. In like manner, Jean Reno's Fache does his duty - though it is religiously driven. Both men reach a point at which they must confront the abscenity of those whose bidding they do - both men reject the evil that has been driving them and assist the escape of the heroes.

The rating: 7 out of 10. The plot could have been more skilfully woven to prevent the conclusions being obvious. The cinematography, however, is magnificent. The Louvre is made good use of, as are the various castles and churches. I don't see the controversey myself, but that could just be because I'm not enamoured with either conspiracy theories or worried that this will bring down the Roman Catholic Church.