The Da Vinci Code

The Da Vinci Code (2006)

DVD, Somerville, MA

January 18, 2007

*** / ****

Movies brimming with plot twists, character turns, and shrouded mysteries almost always leave me confused, annoyed, and angry. Something about being taken on a wild goose chase where the goose turns out to be a dead pigeon is not exactly how I enjoy spending two hours of my life, especially when I’m not even sure how I got there. But alas, in the current movie climate I like to refer to as “The Age of the Twist,” such occurrences are all too common.

Though in the same vein as these perplexingly silly head scratching monstrosities, Ron Howard’s The Da Vinci Code is quite a bit better. Howard is skillful in taking a ludicrous premise and making it entertaining. Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou, he of the funny fading glory mullet and she of the alluring perma-pout, are our heroes, and Howard is masterful in how he allows them to be small in the ever-expanding girth of what is slowly revealed to them. Wrapped up in warring secret societies, intentional misinformation, and clever revisionist history, the duo scamper, scheme, and take flight through Paris and London as they try to make sense of the pot of gold at the end of their ever widening rainbow: the storied Holy Grail. What and more specifically how the reluctant Harvard professor, Hanks, and his unwitting honest-cop gal-pal, Tautou, discover the secret of the Grail is where we find most of the fun.

Based on the blockbuster novel by Dan Browne, the movie, like the book, is something most fitting a day at the beach. That is to say a breezy plot heavy on adventure, treasure hunting, and main characters unexpectedly thrust into the center of it all. It’s entertaining stuff, for sure, and the further down the rabbit hole we go the better it becomes. The reason for the entertainment value comes in the good performances of Hanks, Tautou, and especially Ian McKellan as a rival professor of Hanks from across the pond, and in how Howard mixes flashbacks of past historical events with his contemporary characters’ maniacal history obsessions. Of course, the story gets awfully ludicrous, quite a bit more complicated than reality would ever allow (talk about inefficiency at keeping a secret!), and is buttressed by a seemingly unending amount of Historical Conspiracy 101 speeches, but the talent on display here is not to be quibbled with. In the end it is the immense talent of all involved that allows The Da Vinci Code to rise above similar fare into a fun and exhilarating viewing experience. The Da Vinci Code certainly won’t have you screaming its praises from the nearest rooftop, it’s not that good, but is also won’t have you leaping off the tops of buildings ending it all as the completely ridiculous, and similarly conspiracy bound, National Treasure, possibly might. Two stories born of the same conspiracy never grew up so differently.

Additional Note: I am lately noticing a disturbing trend in movies: the cellular phone obsession. Seemingly everywhere in contemporary movies, the ubiquitous hand held is not only an on-screen touch of modernity but also an all-too-used screen writing crutch and plot device. Who would have thought current screen writing could get so lazy that “when in doubt, use the phone” would become a mantra? Can’t figure out how to make your plot work? Add a phone call. Unsure how to connect X and Z with Y? Just dial those digits. Don’t believe me? The next time you watch a movie pay attention to how many times people use their cellular phones. Then, imagine ways in which the same bit could be done without the phone. L-A-Z-Y.