Saturday, May 20, 2006

THE DA VINCI CODE




Action adventure

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Tom Hanks: Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology
Jean Reno: Captain Bezu Fache with the French version of the FBI
Audrey Tautou: Sophie Neveu, French government agent and cryptologist
Ian McKellen: Sir Leigh Teabing, an expert in theology
Alfred Molina: Bishop Aringarosa, a member of the Catholic clergy
Paul Bettany: his associate Silas

REVIEW
Most critics at the annual Cannes film festival panned the movie. It was described variously as "grim", "unwieldy" and "plodding".

Sure it’s shot in dark muted colours in keeping with the nature of the story but that doesn’t make it grim. There are some lengthy passages during which some historical background material is presented, but that is all very necessary to understand what is going on and certainly does not make it unwieldy. As far as plodding goes, that’s the last thing I’d say about it because of the frequent car chases, crisp editing, some unexpected turn of events and lots of running around in Paris, Zurich and London.

I wonder if we saw the same film?

CLASSIFICATION
for disturbing images, violence, some nudity, thematic material, brief drug references (about 20 seconds worth) and sexual content (missed that part).

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
I won’t even begin to get into this subject.

So much has been made of the fact many things presented in the novel and in the movie that are supposedly true yet there is much evidence to the contrary. Since I consider this to be a work of fiction, there does not seem to be any point in rehashing what has already been said.

P.S.
There has been a lot of controversy and protestations because of the central message the movie has to say. Some people might be upset about that so perhaps not going to see the movie is the best thing for them. But that’s a personal choice.

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