The Da Vinci Code - First Hand Movie Review

Hi truth-seekers/history-enthusiasts/myth-fanatics or simply die-hard-The-Da-Vinci-Code-fans!

I've just returned from the theatre having watched one of the first screenings of the movie The Da Vinci Code (It has been released today - 18 May 2006 at Singapore) and in one line - It was just beautiful. Here's my first hand review:

Every actor in the movie has been chosen with great precision and they have lived-up to their expectations well. Jacques Sauniere looks perfect as The Vitruvian Man. Tom Hanks (Robert Langdon) and Sir Ian McKellen (Sir Leigh Teabing) deliver outstandingly on acting. Sir Ian McKellen has been exceptional in his dialog delivery. The sequence wherein he asks Langdon three questions before letting him into his house on Chateau Villette gives the audience quite a tickle. There's a good visual appeal in Teabing working with his Graphic Tablet on The Last Supper and the play on the word Sangreal.

Sophie Neveu's character has been fantastically portrayed by Audrey Tautou. Every emotion that she portrays- from her concern for Langdon's fear of enclosed spaces - to her outbursts on having been bombarded with ghastly facts about her life and family - to her compassion with a hint of affection for Robert Langdon with her striking smiles - is captivating, to say the least. And there's that resolve omnipresent on her countenance presenting an appealing insight into a delicate woman-of-substance. It'll take its time to fade away. Must confess that I found her simply lovely.

And guess who plays Bishop Aringarosa - the scientist called Dr. Otto Octavius in Spiderman 2! Alfred Molina is seen with almost the same expressions. I feel his character has been dealt with only sparingly. His good intentions for whatever he was doing for the church (other than those he expressed) fail to make any appearance on screen except for one animated and vociferous outburst of his at the Vatican council. For anybody who hasn't read the book, it'll take more than one man's share of imagination to even feel that he was a well meaning guy who ultimately gets double-crossed by the real freaked-out goon. May-be the screenplay is to be blamed for that but there's a lot to choose between what detail to include and what not to from a book so expansive in ideas and characterization.

Some real good expressions by Jean Reno (Bezu Fache) too! His character has been dealt with quite satisfactorily.

But the best-dressed award in the movie would definitely go to the extremely well charaterized and portrayed albino-Silas. Each of his expressions - of faith, trust, confession, pain, anger and deception are very vivid and deserve to be well taken account of.

Now - the locations. It would be a delight for everybody like me to know that the movie actually shows all the locations and artifacts - The Louvre Museum of course, the church of Saint Sulpice, the Temple Church in London, Rosslyn Chapel et al. Those who have missed "The Bible Week" on National Geographic Channel last to last week have a chance to watch the places with the camera angles, as you would feel, described in the book itself - I felt that!

It was a delight to watch Madonna Of The Rocks and The Last Supper with some welcome special effects with the latter, while Teabing describes it to Langdon and Sophie. Although the "Monalisa" hardly got much screen time. Movie goers shall find almost every location in the book present on the screen. And the subtle special effects simply win one over. My personal favorite is the one where Langdon, while shaving, cuts his cheek and the oozing deep-red blood drops on the wash-basin form into the Fleur-di-lis and extend downwards forming a line-of-blood - the moment when he realizes that the term Roslin could actually indicate the "Royal blood-line" instead of the "Rosslyn Chapel" and he sets out to check the real thing out on the streets of Paris!

As far as theories described in the book are concerned, like the discussion on the so-called divine-ratio phi, for instance, one couldn't really expect them to be shown in the movie, for then it could possibly be giving too much to those who weren't really prepared for it. The movie runs to about 150 mins already and it could be called an achievement that it doesn't lose its pace at all. After all, something must be kept available for the species of movie-goers who decide to read a book only after they watch a movie adaptation!

Even as I had reached half-way thorugh when reading the book, I wished that I get to watch a movie made on the book. But then thought that it would be too far-fetched an idea for anybody to make a movie on a subject like this - controversial with fundamentalists and too demanding for the real enthusiasts! And that too with so much data floating around, it would be a Herculean task to actually give readers of the book visuals more engrossing than what they already might have created in their mind (Kudos to Dan Brown here, for his superb imagery and architectural description in his book). So I wasn't expecting this movie to actually happen. But Hollywood simply defies gravity - what comes down can go up again! My spirits in this case.

Overall "The Da Vinci Code" is a fantastic creation and, regardless of what some reviews from yesterdays screening at Cannes have to say about it, I'll give Ron Howard an extremely appreciative double thums up for having pulled off a difficult job and having been quite impressive at that.