The Da Vinci Code
By John Sheridan, Blockbuster.co.uk

“Each breath you take is a sin. No shadow will be safe again, for you will be hunted by angels.”

A great adaptation of Dan Brown’s blockbuster book; The Da Vinci Code is an intelligent, gripping and compelling thriller starring Tom Hanks and directed by Academy Award® winning director Ron Howard.

Professor John Langdon (Tom Hanks) is a brilliant scholar who is in Paris when the curator of the Louver is murdered. He is called to the museum by the Paris Chief of Police (Jean Reno) who suspects him of the murder, there he finds the curator in a position that reveals to Langdon a hidden code. He doesn’t reveal this to the police and manages to escape Police custody through the help of the victim’s granddaughter Sophie (Audrie Tautou). Now on the run, the two of them must discover why this old man has been killed, and uncover the secret that he died to protect.

For those of you unfamiliar with the phenomenon that is The Da Vinci Code, this is the film based on the book by novelist Dan Brown which looks into the possibility of a cover-up by the Catholic Church, into the true relationship of Mary Magdalene to the Christian Messiah Jesus Christ. It is claimed by Brown that Mary was Jesus’ wife, they had a daughter Sarah and that Daughter lived and had descendents through the ages…

A mixture of history and fiction, i.e. the book makes more sense, the further back in history you go… Brown claims in his book that the Catholic Church has been hiding the secret of Jesus’ descendents existence for centuries and is in fact murdering to protect this secret. To keep track of the descendents of Christ, the early Christians have come up with a code that has been passed down to a select few through the ages; one of whom was Leonardo Da Vinci who included a code in his painting of The Last Supper. This is quite a long and heavy book, and Ron Howard has done a great job of knocking this down to a manageable format that keeps up a decent pace.

Although this film was almost universally derided when it was first released, I thought it was a great thriller. In fact pretty much everyone I spoke to agrees with me. All I can say is that critics by their very nature are paid to criticise. This is a fast paced, intriguing and exciting film that could fuel many conversations down the pub. It’s rare to find a blockbuster movie that is this intelligent, now, if only Tom Hanks hair didn’t look so…woolly, this would be a perfect film.

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