Spring Break
Decoding the flaws of 'Da Vinci Code' far too easy
David Goncalves
Issue date: 6/2/06 Section: Entertainment
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The cast of the film was star-studded, with Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina, Jean Reno and Paul Bettany. Hanks acted the part of Robert Langdon very well, but did not seem to fit the role. His character felt a little odd because his actions and tones seemed to indicate a much older man. Tatou perfectly portrayed Sophie Neveu as a real person troubled by the haunting image of a terrible past, and Reno played a very convincing asshole, Captain Fache. Ian McKellen turned in his usual terrific performance in the role of Leigh Teabing, an old, crippled former colleague of Langdon's. Bettany was excellent, if not all that intimidating, as the albino Silas.
The direction of the film felt a little awkward; it seemed that Ron Howard attempted to turn the film into something deeper than what it really is. The movie tries to be mysterious, but turns out obvious; the foreshadowing is overly strong. Langdon would point out some "trivial" fact like, "Oh, look there, that pyramid is made of glass," but it was put together so awkwardly and as such a non sequitur that everyone in the audience with half a brain sees it and thinks to themselves, "Well, that's going to be important later."
A lot of Howard's camera shots were very awkward, too. For the most part, the film uses a straightforward camera angle, but Howard occasionally changed his camera direction for flashbacks. In one flashback near the beginning, he uses a high-angled shot, but never repeats this in any of the ones that follow. One shot that seems particularly out of place is a scene with one of the henchmen talking to Praetor (or Teacher; they use the words interchangeably). The way the shot is done, the henchman is speaking to the audience, not to Praetor, who isn't physically in the shot and doesn't speak to remind us that he's there. The audience has to assume that Praetor is around, but the way the shot is slipped in feels extremely out of place and lackluster.
The puzzles weren't the easiest in the world, but weren't exactly all that astounding. The anagrams were difficult, but they were only present in the early parts of the film and were solved at ridiculous speed by our dear protagonists. In fact, every puzzle was solved at lightning speed. The ridiculously difficult anagrams were solved in moments by Langdon and Neveu, but the easier ones seemed to stump them. Howard likes to pull little tricks like that to make the audience feel smart, letting you figure it out before the heroes do. It is difficult to divulge much more on the topic of puzzles without giving anything away, but all you need to know is that the puzzles are very straightforward, so looking for clues outside of the ones given immediately is not necessary.
This film was probably one of the most trivial pieces of tripe I've come across this year. It is a decent action film, at least, but as far as everything else goes, it's like watching National Treasure, but for adults and in Europe. I wouldn't highly recommend this film to anyone but it'll work if you are bored and need to kill two and a half hours.
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