Tossed my $9 on top of the hundreds of millions grossed by The DaVinci Code movie last weekend. I was a little hesitant, since the first critics to see the movie had given it such lackluster reviews.
I'm glad I didn't listen.
I kept hearing that the moving was plodding, slow paced, bogged down with too much explanation. That Tom Hanks was miscast--the critics wanted a young Harrison Ford-type character. I heard complaints that you couldn't understand Audrey Tautou's accent. And that it was hard to follow the plot twists and the long discourses on symbology.
I disagree. I thought The DaVinci Code's pacing and cinematography, courtesy of director Ron Howard, were excellent. The location shots were wonderful. Tom Hanks was a very good Robert Langdon. If you've read the book, you know his character is a stodgy Harvard professor and reluctant adventurer--not at all the rogue treasure hunter and physically active hero Indiana Jones was. The critics were projecting their own vision with those complaints, disappointed their preconceived notions of what the movie was supposed to be didn't play out on the screen.
I didn' t have a problem understanding Audrey Tautou. Although my husband joked he couldn't understand anything she said when she was talking French. Luckily for him, there were subtitles for those lines. Could there have been more chemistry between Tautou and Hanks? Definitely yes, the relationship was more father-daughter or uncle-niece than anything man-woman. It would've been nice to have a bit of romance going on between the wild dashes from danger to danger. Dialogue? Another weak point, it could have been a lot snappier.
As for the long explanations about Leonardo DaVinci, the Last Supper painting, Mary Magdelene, etc.--they weren't that long and couldn't have been any shorter without missing the whole point of the story. The mystery plot has some wild twists, with a good number of characters involved. It can be confusing if you're not paying attention. Sure, you'll understand it better if you've read the book first, but you'll do just fine if you haven't. Just be warned: The DaVinci Code is not the kind of movie where you can leave your seat to go get popcorn and expect to know what's going on when you get back.
The supporting actors were great--I loved Paul Bettany as Silas the albino monk and Ian McKellen as Sir Leigh Teabing the haughty British professor.
I give the movie a 7.5 out of 10. Very much worth seeing if you liked the book, or if you're just curious about the last few years of hype and controversy.
Until next Friday...
Joy Nash
www.joynash.com
