There has been much hype about ’The Da Vinci Code’ film. In India, the movie has been banned in a few states! Well, however, I considered myself lucky to get to see this movie at Mumbai. If you thought the film would be great. Think again.
The book , ’ The Da Vinci Code’ has been way better than it’s screen version. What I personally felt was that the movie lacked screenplay. Very poor screenplay infact. The story has been told in a hurry. The first half finishes off most of the book.
The Story...
The story has been modified a bit for convenience. For example, In the book, Langdon and Neveu go to a library and use a computer to serach about a tomb. Here, both of them finish off their seach in an i-Pod borrowed from a passenger in a bus. The explanation about the Holy Grail is surprisingly good in the movie. All the humour comes from Leh Teabing. Another big error in the movie is that, the unlocking of the cryptexes haven’t been shown.This pulls away much of the suspense. But, there has been something good about the movie too.
As the critics said, the movie is ’Technically’ sound. The depiction of the historical part i.e The Knight Templars, Sophie’s past etc has been done extremely well.The second half carries the chunk of the explanation. The epilogue of the book has also been screened ( it was really good!). The sounds were not excellent but not bad either.
As for the acting by the artistes, Tom Hanks tops the list. He has stood out of the cast proving once again that he is worthy of an Academy Award. Neveu’s role needed more aggression which the lady(dunno her name) who acted didn’t have.
Verdict...
Considering all the facts about the film, it’s pretty good to watch only if you had read the book.
Do watch this film, atleast for the acting of Tom Hanks and the novel.
Signing off on my 50th review for Mouthshut.com
Ananth
P.S - If you are an orthodox Christian who believes history as sacred, PLEASE avoid this film.