DECODED
Ron Howard's DaVinci Code mirrored the book quite similarly
BY LAUREN ALLEN

The DaVinci Code was not my favorite book. I wasn't one of the millions who just couldn't put the book down. Therefore, it's no shocker that I wasn't anticipating its movie release. All that being said, I did go and see the film. Oddly, it wasn't the two-plus hour snooze-fest I thought it would be. 

Before I get too into this review, right or wrong, I'm taking the liberty of assuming that the majority of people reading this article have already read the book. No sense getting too bogged down with details of a story that everyone already knows. 

Let's begin with the casting. Some choices were absolutely flawless, while others were absolutely mediocre. Before seeing the film, I just didn't picture Tom Hanks as our hero, symbologist Robert Langdon. Liberty Watch's own George Harris thought the role should have gone to someone like Harrison Ford. Even though he played the leading man in the movie, compared to the others in the story, Hank's character was pretty low key and didn't seem to take much effort on his part. 

Paul Bettany, as Silas, turned in the best performance of the show as the albino monk. The scenes where he's practicing self-flagellation are so intense I had to turn away my head. Throughout the story, his eyes possessed this haunting look of total devotion to his cause. This guy just seems to get better and better with each movie under his belt. 

Sir Ian McKellen was fantastic as eccentric Sir Leigh Teabing, the man who ties the whole thing together by revealing the true secret meaning of the Holy Grail. Audrey Tautou was less than stellar as police cryptologist Sophie Neveu. That could be partially due to the fact that she and Tom Hanks seemed to have no chemistry whatsoever. Lastly, Jean Reno was the perfect choice to play the shady inspector, Bezu Fache. 

As for the movie itself, if you were a fan of the book, I think you'll be very pleased with the way that director Ron Howard stayed true to the story. In some respects, I enjoyed his version of it better. One of the things that bothered me about the book was that I had a difficult time keeping up with some of the minute details that Brown spent so much time delving into. The movie version seemed to move along much smoother and didn't wallow in endless minutia. 

One interesting thing is the way that Ron Howard appears to be pulling a few tricks straight out of A Beautiful Mind in the way Robert Langdon is able to solve and decipher the many clues left behind by Sophie Neveu's grandfather, Louvre curator Jacques Sauniere. Letters and numbers seem to mysteriously dance themselves into place in the mind of Robert Langdon, almost the same exact way they did for Russell Crowe. 

I did feel that the film should have spent a bit more time explaining the history and theories believed by Opus Dei. For those not familiar with the book, I wonder if it made any sense at all why they dispatched a murdering monk to perform their dirty work. 

Still, even if you haven't read the book, I think you'd be able to follow along without too much trouble. The majority of actors speak with thick French accents, and a lot of the dialog is shown in subtitles. It wasn't one of my favorites, but still was worth a look. LW