Film Review
‘Da Vinci’ Can’t Quite Crack the Code

By: Daniel Watkins (June 13, 2006)

After being a worldwide bestselling book, Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code seemed destined for the big screen. The book had drama, action, historical references, a love story, and numerous subplots with many twists and turns. Perfect for turning into a movie right? Well, in this case, not exactly. While the movie is not completely a flop, it definitely has problems matching up to its paper counterpart.

In the film, Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is a professor that specializes in historic symbols, especially those found in the world’s religions. He is called to a crime scene to help an investigation which involved a man who left many different markings on his body. Langdon meets up with Sophie Nevue at the crime scene, and he is told that he is being set up by the Chief of Police in France, Bezu Fache. Uncovering the mystery of the message left at the crime scene is just the beginning in an adventure that leads Sophie and Langdon all around Europe, uncovering secrets about the history of Christianity, Jesus, and the Holy Grail. It is a very fast-paced story and a great page turner that will keep you on your toes.

In the book, plot twists are presented in a suspenseful matter. It keeps you guessing and you have no idea what is coming next. In the movie though, it feels like all the twists are rushed into the plot. One second, it’s this way, and the next it’s a different way. There is very little suspense building and scenes feel pasted together quickly. It still flows okay, but not as well as the book. It is also common in movies made after books that some scenes are changed or erased entirely. What made the book good was that everything was laid out for the reader to learn. In the movie, a lot of things are just said and not explained, which leaves the person watching the movie wondering what really is going on. It actually is harder to follow the movie than it is the book. With an already long movie at two and a half hours, some scenes did need to be cut, but the movie could have explained a little more of what was going on in the first 30 minutes or so.

If there was no DaVinci Code book, I might be able to see this as a better movie. It is certainly interesting to see how everything unfolds, and if you have patience, it does keep your attention. It has great acting and believable characters. It just seems like there were many small things wrong with the movie. Some of the suspense from the book simply didn’t translate well into the movie. It is very hard writing a screenplay on a well established book, and some things that were left out should have been included. Maybe just 15 more minutes’ worth of film, and it could have been much better. A word of advice: if you like to read, pick up the book and then don’t put it down. After you’re done, go see the movie. Even though the film isn’t on par with the book, it is still kind of fun to see how the characters act on screen in comparison with how they act in your imagination while reading the book.