The Da Vinci Code (2006)

I continue my pseudo religious theme. This time it is not horror or disaster movie. Catholic church has its own power struggles. Innocent historian is caught in middle of old religious mystery. It is hard for me to estimate the stakes. Revealing the story's truth would not change anything for me to one way or another.

The Da Vinci Code was big event as a book and movie. Book was bestseller and the movie was inevitable. Success of The Da Vinci Code resulted different documentaries of how much of it is based on real events and how much of it is made for the book. I am not trying to estimate that here. If you want to know more of it you should have enough material to check.

When book is adapted to movie there is always something missing.The Da Vinci Code is so well done you don't see missing parts if you don't start to analyze. I don't know if they are explained in book better. There are two thing which felt like something is missing. First is why Tom Hanks trusts Audrey Tautou over Jean Reno's police man. Tautou makes Hanks run from the police in foreign country. It is like Hanks trusts Tautou because she is female lead of the movie.

Jean Reno's story arch has much more missing elements. He begins as police who works for a bishop to some extent. He don't go to Ian McKellen's house when killer monk is there. There are indications he knew killer monk was there and that was reason they waited. When he learns the bishop was not totally honest he believes Tom Hanks was innocent. I felt something was missing. Jean Reno was one of the antagonists. There wasn't time for his character. I would have wanted to know more about him. Not only because I like Jean Reno as actor.

The Da Vinci Code is well done mystery movie. I liked how it kept action minimum. Movie goes on long after what can be considered as last action scene. It is hard to say what worked and what made this good. It is just a good movie.