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The Da Vinci Code review
:. Director: Ron Howard
:. Starring: Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou
:. Running Time: 2:29
:. Year: 2006
:. Country: USA
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An inexhaustible fictional source, The Da Vinci Code abundantly feeds the most extravagant hypotheses and here comes the last misadventure to date, Ron Howard's film adaptation of Dan Brown's bestseller, which sets the tone from the start as a dismaying narrative and directorial underachievement
Deprived of stakes, The Da Vinci Code posters a linearity which, under the cover of legitimacy for a simple spectator, is transformed into a smoky endeavor which falls flat. For an auteuristic purpose, the adaptation imagines a traumatic part placed in each character. All of the characters are bound by a primitive scene. A thin contribution in comparison with the original book, a mystico-religious mumbo jumbo that managed to take the breath away of readers who got excited with its enigmas. Paradoxically, Ron Howard tries to give away the secret while chasing it. His artificial mise en scene, strictly illustrative, arranges nothing. Visually ugly, this talkative film multiplies the explanatory flashbacks. The indigestible whole is supported by pompous omnipresent music, which aims at underlining a tragically nonexistent dramaturgy.
The Da Vinci Code opens with the murder of the Louvre's conservator (Jean-Pierre Marielle), who we then discover belonged to a secret society. Langdon, a specialist in the study of the symbols (Tom Hanks) is called to the rescue and becomes the target of the police force as well as the Opus Dei, a fundamentalist organization, which protects a secret capable of destroying the Catholic dogma. From Paris to London & Scotland, Langdon, accompanied by Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), a smart cryptologist, will decipher the code. The truth will be revealed in an unintentionally funny climax (the emphatic acting might also have something to do with this): the young woman is the descendant of Christ and the tomb of Mary Magdalene, her famous relative, is located under the pyramid of the Louvre. The story somewhat returns to its exact starting point, this deceptive narrative device invalidating the opulence of the sets deployed to support these anti-spectacular adventures.
There is no bravura moment here to waken the spectators from the torpor in which they inexorably sink into. Ron Howard does not manage to energize the characters and the story, which cruelly lacks opacity. The actors seem agitated, sometime showing off. And one observes a semi-amused Audrey Tautou, curiously formatted for this film, which looks very French, in terms of aesthetics.
But did we really expect anything else from a marketing product aiming at promoting the Eurostar train?
Sandrine Marques
Translated into English by Anji Milanovic
 Movie Reviews: from 1998 to 2011
Movie Reviews since 2012
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