When I read The Da Vinci Code I was immediately gripped by how
fantastic it was. The book was absolutely impossible to put down and so I was
naturally a bit sceptical about whether the film could live up to the success
of the book. I don’t think it does, but it is a very faithful adaptation which
I feel was made to capitalise on the success of the book rather than anything
else.
For those of you who haven’t read the book and don’t know the
story, firstly you really should. Secondly, the film is about a professor
called Robert Langdon who is accused of murdering the curator of the Musee du
Louvre. He becomes embroiled in a quest to find the Holy Grail with a woman
called Sophie Neveu which takes a fair few twists and turns on the way. It is a
thrilling story from beginning to end, but as with many films that build on the
success of a novel, it doesn’t even come close to being as entertaining as Dan
Brown’s book. As a film it is fairly average, but because it is building on
something so successful it seems to be much better.
It stars Tom Hanks who is, as ever, wonderful to watch. He has
such a fantastic on-screen presence and a tremendous ability to ‘become’ every
character that he plays. For me, now that I have seen the film, I cannot
picture anyone else as Langdon, and when I read The Lost Symbol relatively
recently, it was Hanks who I was visualising in my mind. However, his acting
performance isn’t incredible. It is not a particularly taxing role I shouldn’t
imagine, and beyond reading the book a couple of times there is not much that
is required beforehand with regard to dedication to the role. I really like Tom
Hanks, but this isn’t one of his better roles. That doesn’t mean that it is one
of his worst though.
In my opinion, the star of the show was Paul Brittany who played
the monk Silas. In the book he is a very scary character and poses quite an
intimidating threat throughout. It was always going to be difficult to
translate this on to the screen. I have recently seen a fair few films with
Paul Bettany in and so I was quite surprised to learn that it was he who
played Silas in The Da Vinci Code. I just completely didn’t recognise him and
he played his character very well. While he wasn’t as imposing as in the book,
there are very few genuinely haunting performances. Silas is, I feel, intended
as a haunting character and this is difficult enough to convey in words let
alone on screen.
There are a number of other stars in supporting roles. Ian
McKellen is perfect in the role of the English gentleman Leigh Teabing and
provides a good voice to convey much of the grail legend to Langdon, Neveu and
the audience. The actress who plays Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou – better known
for her role in Amelie) doesn’t particularly stand out, but like I said, it is
quite difficult to excel in such an adapted role. Alfred Molina does very well
as the leader of Opus Dei, but he too suffers from the same hangover from the
book as most of the other cast. Ultimately, this film only serves to provide a
visualisation of the book in my opinion. There is nothing about it which makes
it stand out from any other film.
I did like the way that the symbolism was portrayed in the film as
it makes up such a major part of the book. All four of Dan Brown’s Robert
Langdon books feature the symbolism in popular culture as a major theme and
this contributes to the astounding success of the series. As a result, there
must have been a lot of pressure on the film to deliver this in a convincing
and realistic way. Director Ron Howard does this very well and stays true to
the vast majority of the meaning in the book.
Ultimately, this is a very hard film to make because of the
obvious comparisons to the book. Personally, I don’t think it is a bad film at
all, but it does suffer from the inevitable comparisons to the book. The
casting is (mostly) spot on, and the presentation of the story is brilliant,
but because of how incredible the book was, the film tends to suffer. If you
wanted to watch the film then I cannot advise you strongly enough to read the
book first. I guarantee it will keep you entertained for so long, but if you
watch the film first then a lot of the twists and turns of the novel will be
lost because of how well they are written.
Other films starring Tom Hanks:
Saving Private Ryan - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/saving-private-ryan.html
Another film starring Paul Bettany:
A Beautiful Mind - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/a-beautiful-mind.html
A Beautiful Mind - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/a-beautiful-mind.html
Other films starring Ian McKellen:
The Lord of the Rings (Part 1) - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/lord-of-rings-part-1.html
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-hobbit-unexpected-journey.html
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