I had my one and only exam Monday. It was a three-hour essay exam in which I had to answer three out of 10 questions. My hand was seriously cramped afterward, so my friends and I decided to ease the pain by going to the pub for a pint or two. Then, we went to the cinema to see what all of the Da Vinci Code fuss was about.
I'll preface my review of the movie by saying that I did not read the book because I thought the story sounded lame. After seeing the movie, I'm glad I didn't read the book. Don't get me wrong -- the movie was entertaining. It's just that I've seen this movie before, only it was called National Treasure and Nicholas Cage played the title character instead of Tom Hanks. I found both movies to be largely forgettable once the credits rolled.
I went to see The Da Vinci Code mainly because I wanted to see what it exactly caused The Vatican to get its shorts in a bunch. Having now seen the film, I have concluded that church leaders are being a bunch of ninnies. If there are any people out there who believe that The Da Vinci Code portrays an accurate view of history, these are sad, misguided individuals who were probably also disappointed when The Never-ending Story, did, in fact, end. So, Vatican, let it go!
At the start of the film, we see a crazed, "albino" named Silas, played by Paul Bettany (whom I liked much better as Russel Crowe's invisible friend in A Beautiful Mind), chasing some old guy around the Louvre with a gun. The old guy turns out to be the curator who is apparently the keeper of some really, really big secret that Silas wants in on. Whether Silas gets to the bottom of the secret is unknown and Silas shoots the curator, then hobbles off. Before the curator dies, he manages to wander around the Louvre, leaving enigmatic clues about the Big Secret.
Next, the police arrive on the scene and decide they need someone who is really good at solving enigmatic clues to help them out. That someone just happens to be Robert Langdon, played by Tom Hanks with an odd hairdo, who is a professor of "symbology" at Harvard. The next 90 minutes or so of the movie consists of Langdon hopping between Paris and London on a wild goose chase, attempting to get to the bottom of the Big Secret. To keep the men in the audience interested, Langdon is accompanied by a cute French gal who is also quite good at solving enigmatic clues.
So what is the Big Secret? Jesus married Mary Magdalene and fathered a child. Through this child, Jesus's bloodline has survived to modern-day Europe. According to the movie, the Vatican doesn't want anyone to know this because it's misogynistic and it's apparently afraid that people wouldn't want to be Catholics anymore if they knew there was a Mrs. Jesus Christ.
In an effort to squash the secret, the Vatican put Opus Dei, a mysterious sect of Catholicism, on the case, with whom Silas is working. Perhaps it's the idea that The Vatican would be involved in killing people that bothers church leaders so much. (Insert snide comment about the Crusades here).
Oh...and even though he got top billing in the movie's title, Da Vinci plays a somewhat minor role. He was in on the Big Secret and hid some clues about it in two of his paintings: the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper -- clues that did not take our hero and heroine very long to figure out.
So, overall, the premise of the story is a bit ridiculous. I won't give the ending away, but I will note that this ridiculousness leads to even more ridiculousness. It did, however, keep my attention, was moderately entertaining and wasn't a bad way to nurse a seriously cramped hand for a couple of hours.
****
PS: My London friends should see this movie for no other reason than to see the cleaniest, least crowded double-decker bus that's ever navigated the roads of Central London.
We saw "El Codigo Da Vinci" in Mexico (are we lame or what?!) Anyway .. we thought of you guys the whole time! I, too, think the story was dumb but entertaining, however, the cinamotography was cool to see on the big screen. Q: Could they have made Silas any more of a freak? I mean, a certain level of freakiness is believeable, but come on already. The ending was highly contrived. And I think they should have gotten someone better looking to play the "leading man" ... like the French chick really would have gone for him.
Posted by: Molly | June 01, 2006 at 05:42 PM