The DaVinci Code - A Review

Cannes was right....I was wrong.....or was I wrong..???? divided..huh?? exactly....thats what I am thinking...has never occured to me in the recent past of movies.....atleast I would say the hype around the movie was pointless...and now I understand why the censor certified the movie without a fuss..precisely the movie is a NEAT and FAITHFUL reproduction of the DAN BROWN special...just that...glittering at places where it should and also failed to glitter at places where it should have....

The movie opens with Jacques Sauniere getting murdered....so the first half hour looked almost like the visualization of the book....a touch disappointed I should say, but then the movie picks up with interesting juxtapositions of scenes of Fache and Langdon....and I expected a bit more elaboration of the treasure hunt Agent Neveu & Langdon embark on..before reaching the bank.....the book exhumed so much of interest out of these sequences....which hardly had a mention here....I felt disappointed....but enter Sir Ian Mckellen, as Sir Leigh Teabing...the movie makes you sit up as it is incidentally the part of the story that gets to business, so a stellar performance I should say for the Ian Mckellen...the story picks up speed and goes on at that pace...and on and on..until the climax...so in effect, the movie shores up to its elder brother, but doesn't somehow have the poise and silken feel the big brother gave for readers....

reasons if we ponder,
one, I thought was Dan Brown, the way too much of information he packed into the novel, without breaking the pace, was difficult to capture in a 2.5 hr motion picture....that apart, no credit stealing from the makers...Ron Howard and Goldsmith have done a great job..taking liberties at will at places....and choosing not to take rightly at places....Appreciated....

two, because of lack of time, none of the characters have any depth in them...except for Teabing's...only he manages to make an impact with the viewer...otherwise...everybody..including Tom Hanks suffer from lack of depth in characterisation....I felt Tom Hanks was wasted in the movie....felt sorry for this versatile artiste...less talked about Agent Neveu, the better....she was unconvicing to say the least...I am sorry...:-(....

three, irony that this caption turned out to be.... "A picture can say a thousand words" has gone wrong...in this case....the movie couldn't successfully say what the book could....One felt that the movie makers had a presumption that every viewer would have read the book, so they take a liberty of skipping some links here and there...without which any first time davinci decoder...would feel alien....and thats what it looks like....

All said and done, a very good job done on the historical overttones...and the depictions of the history looked convincing the least to say.....

I would say I enjoyed the book more than movie...but nevertheless a Very Good Effort from Ron Howard and team..trying to match the sensation and fame of the book three years into the market...tough it is as one finds out at the theater....

How right was cannes?? !!! how wrong was I ???!!!!