Despite the negative reviews in all major newspapers, I watched the Da Vinci code this weekend. There was no way I was going to pass up a movie with Hanks acting alongside beautiful Audrey Tautou in it. Though I have seen better acting from both, I think it was a decent movie.
While there are a few places where the whole cinema crew seems to have lingered on to admire something that the viewer doesn't see and isn't shown, the overall pace is decent. Cinematically, there are a few scenes that linger in your head after you leave the cinema. Most of Paul Bettany's acting (Silas) is quite arresting. Despite not being the most important scene of the movie, the visual juxtaposition of 18th century London with that of today's while depicting Newton's funeral was pretty close to genius. My biggest gripe: Overall, the movie retains a very third persony feel to it. At no point is the viewer engaged enough to become either Hanks or Audrey and solve the thing in their head. The screenwriting was wobblier than the text of the novel and most of the action sequences don't manage to transport you anywhere out of your seat.
Acting: Paul Bettany was natural. You can imagine a misguided religious nut through him. Thanks to him, Opus Dei is not going to see an increase in their roster anytime soon. Audrey brings intensity to certain scenes. I love her acting and her looks. This was nowhere close to her best (watch "A very long engagement" for comparison). Tom Hanks was a mixed bag. He is very "Terminal" here. Somehow despite being in almost all the scenes, you can't quite remember what his acting contribution was. He is in serious danger of melding too much into the environment with each passing movie. Ian McKellen was good as usual. Funny that he is also in the other big movie released recently (X-3).
Overall: I don't know what the fuss is about. If someone loses their faith because of this movie, they haven't been paying much attention till this point. Religion and religious books contain more lies than Dan Brown could fill in all of his books! So the church should stop whining.
3 comments:
"Despite the negative reviews in all major newspapers, I watched the Da Vinci code this weekend. There was no way I was going to pass up a movie with Hanks acting alongside beautiful Audrey Tautou in it."
In my profile i say that my favourite movie is “The Da vinci Code” even though I hanen’t seen it yet. I was more than sure –and I was telling my friends- that the critics would give very bad reviews even before the movie release. They had not seen the film but they knew it was crap. That’s what seems to happen to all those films adapted from best seller books.
Actually the main reason I m seeing the Code is the gorgeous Audrey. French women rule!
Recently I created my own nation. Instead of founding a new religion, which is quite common, came up with the idea of to set up the first rational nation on earth. That a very ambitious project which will definitely fail, however… what the hell… why not. My vision is to accommodate that state into a huge state.
Anyone can join that nation, which is called eordaikon or eor for you who don’t speak greek (that was my former nationality)- it’s criteria free. The feature of of the nation will be developed by its members in an open dialogue. We will rely on the open source model like linux.
All you have to do is visit foundanation.blogspot.com and make a comment on how you imagine the new born (in fact reborn! It is very much related to the very well orchestrated conspiracy against the Code – I shall explain later). Don’t bother about the Greek. Language shouldn’t be a barrier between people who share the same visions and ideas
Most importantly though, do not take me very seriously, because I often like to talk bullshit, which is my favourite sport.
Finally, I very much agree with your last paragraph. Living in a hypocritically religious and conservative country, I have heard lots of nonsense lately about DA VINCI.
Keep up the good work!
Fine review! Plan on watching it the coming weekend.
I agree with every statement you've made. Except for the one about Hanks' acting...but then I'm a fan after all.
I was rather surprised at how good the movie turned out to be...after all it is a difficult story to tell, what with all the switching between past and present, multiple code breakers, religion, mathematics all in one.
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