Well, Yesterday night I watched the movie "Da Vinci Code" with my office pals.
The movie is based upon best-seller book of same name by Dan Brown. The star-cast consists of Tom Hanks (as Robert Langdon, the symbologist), Audrey Tautou (as Sophie Neveu, the French cryptographer) and Alfred Molina (as Aringarosa, the priest) apart from others.
Movie is about two-and-half hour’s duration. It is directed by Ron Howard (Academy award- winning director of Academy award-wining film "A Beautiful Mind").
Plus Points:
- Tom Hanks fits perfectly with my own image of Robert Langdon. He has the right bearing, the body language, and doesn’t go over the top.
- Unlike other movies based on novels (Devdas), here the director has stuck faithfully to the book right from first page to the last, with minor modifications. Even dialogues are mostly from the book.
- Most of the shooting has been done on authentic locations, be it Louvre Museum, or St Sulpice Church. Only the Westminster Abbey has been filmed from outside.
- The character of Sophie Neveu.... While reading the book, I had pictured her as an introvert, with a round face and bright eyes. However, Audrey Tautou who plays the character is miles away from this image. She has an aquiline face, with a hard-set jaw-line. Moreover, she fails to emote well. Just imagine... one fine evening, you come to know that you are the direct descendant of Jesus Christ, and she appears to take it very casually!
- It is quite clear that director has assumed viewers must have read the book. So the movie rushes at a breakneck pace, and sometimes many points are not properly explained. Unless one has read the book, it would be difficult for someone to understand the sequence of events on screen.
- In spite of technical finesse, the movie somehow fails to make an impact. When you have watched something like "Titanic", or our very own "Lagaan” you take the movie home alongwith you and live in the atmosphere for next few hours, even a few days perhaps. "Da Vinci Code" failed to have this kind of after-movie impact, at least in my case.
My suggestion would be, do watch it if you get a chance, but in case you can't make it, don’t fret yourself... you wouldn’t be missing out on too much.
