The Da Vinci Code (film)
From AwardAnnals
| Film: | The Da Vinci Code |
|---|---|
| Director: | Ron Howard |
| Genres: | |
| Distributor: | Sony Pictures |
| Find it: |
|---|
Reviews
Amazon.com
Critics and controversy aside, The Da Vinci Code is a verifiable blockbuster. Combine the film’s huge worldwide box-office take with over 100 million copies of Dan Brown’s book sold, and The Da Vinci Code has clearly made the leap from pop-culture hit to a certifiable franchise. The leap for any story making the move from book to big screen, however, is always more perilous. In the case of The Da Vinci Code, the plot is concocted of such a preposterous formula of elements that you wouldn’t envy screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, the man tasked with making this story filmable. The script follows Dan Brown’s book as closely as possible while incorporating a few needed changes, including a better ending. And if you’re like most of the world, by now you’ve read the book and know how it goes: while lecturing in Paris, noted Harvard Professor of Symbology Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is summoned to the Louvre by French police to help decipher a bizarre series of clues left at the scene of the murder of the chief curator. Enter Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), gifted cryptologist. Neveu and Langdon team up to solve the mystery, and from there the story is propelled across Europe, ballooning into a modern-day mini-quest for the Holy Grail, where secret societies are discovered, codes are broken, and murderous albino monks are thwarted… oh, and alternative theories about the life of Christ and the beginnings of Christianity are presented too, of course. It’s not the typical formula for a stock Hollywood thriller. In fact, taken solely as a mystery, the movie almost works—despite some gaping holes—mostly just because it keeps moving. Brown’s greatest trick was to have the entire story take place in one day, so the action is forced to keep moving, despite some necessary pauses for exposition. As a screen couple, Hanks and Tautou are just fine together but not exactly memorable; meanwhile Sir Ian McKellen’s scenery-chewing as pivotal character Sir Leigh Teabing is just what the film needed to keep it from taking itself too seriously. The whole thing is like a good roller-coaster ride: try not to think too much about it—just sit back and enjoy the trip. —Daniel Vancini
Barnes & Noble
Considering how impossibly high expectations were for the film version of Dan Brown’s wildly popular novel, director Ron Howard should be commended for pulling off as sturdy a job as he did. The serpentine plot of Brown’s metaphysical mystery could itself thwart a small army of directors and screenwriters. Dr. Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), an American scholar specializing in religious symbolism, is summoned to the Louvre one night, ostensibly to help French police captain Bezu Fache (Jean Reno) investigate the murder of another researcher. But when Langdon himself falls under suspicion, he enlists the aid of government agent Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou) and British researcher Sir Leigh Teabing (Ian McKellen) to help solve the mystery—which, with pertinent clues hidden in paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, involves a 2,000-year-old secret of great significance to all humanity. Downplaying the book’s most melodramatic and sensationalistic aspects, Howard still has plenty of gothic plotting to deal with. But the film maintains enough momentum to whisk momentarily befuddled viewers past assorted absurdities and gaps in logic. If you let yourself get caught up in the thrill of it all, without searching for any underlying spiritual gravity, The Da Vinci Code offers smashing entertainment. Ed Hulse
Related works
The Da Vinci Code: A Novel
While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum. Near the body, police have found a baffling cipher. While working to solve the enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci—clues visible for all to see—yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.Langdon joins forces with a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, and learns the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion—an actual secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci, among others.
In a breathless race through Paris, London, and beyond, Langdon and Neveu match wits with a faceless powerbroker who seems to anticipate their every move. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle in time, the Priory’s ancient secret—and an explosive historical truth—will be lost forever.
The Da Vinci Code heralds the arrival of a new breed of lightning-paced, intelligent thriller…utterly unpredictable right up to its stunning conclusion.
The Da Vinci Code: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
The soundtrack for one of this season’s most anticipated films, Columbia Pictures and Imagine Entertainment’s The Da Vinci Code, features original music composed by Oscar®-winner Hans Zimmer (Rain Man, The Lion King, Black Hawk Down, Gladiator).
Zimmer recorded the soundtrack at Air Studios which Da Vinci Code fans will be delighted to know is situated on “Rosslyn” Hill in London, and also at Abbey Road Studios. Director, Ron Howard commented that the music recorded at the sessions was “powerful, fresh and wonderfully effective… Like every other facet of this movie, the score for The Da Vinci Code demanded a range of textures that recognized and reinforced the layers of ideas and emotion, which unfold as the basic story does.” Zimmer once again captures the essence of suspense and tension that builds throughout the film. “The inspired Hans Zimmer has given us extraordinarily memorable music to appreciate within the framework of a film or completely on its own, where you can let the sounds carry you on your own private journey,” summarized Ron Howard. The two have previously collaborated on Backdraft in 1991.
