The Da Vinci Code (2006)
October 8th, 2006
Too long. Ridiculous premise. Childish plot. Lame ending. Cartoonish characters. Serviceable actors, but little chemistry between the leads.
It’s pretty much Batman and Robin featuring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou. Hanks is the same as he always is. Tautou (from Amélie) is talented and attractive, but she keeps gazing at Hanks as if there were a romantic sub-plot. Maybe there was but it ended up on the cutting-room floor. As it is, it seems like she is acting in a different movie than Hanks.
I haven’t read the book. I hear it’s better. I liked some things:
The settings, especially the Louvre. I love seeing the Louvre in movies. Especially when people run through it. That Mona Lisa! The backwards car chase on a Paris sidewalk in a smart car. The gee-whiz feeling of it - see “Cartoonish characters” and “Childish plot,” above. The creepy self-flagellating albino monk assassin. (Just in case you started thinking it was for kids.) Ian McKellan’s performance. The educational flashbacks in black and white, because as everyone knows, colour wasn’t invented until 1887.
It was entertaining; I enjoyed it. But I enjoy almost all movies. The bottom line for me is that I wouldn’t watch it again.
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