Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Looking Closer

Home
Religious Music & Entertainment
So Dull the Con of Moviegoers.

So Dull the Con of Moviegoers.

Last updated on: December 11, 2012 at 12:38 pm by Jeffrey Overstreet

So Dull the Con of Moviegoers. 2012-12-11T12:38:46-07:00 Jeffrey Overstreet

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Michael Phillips of The Chicago Tribune:

How can a film contain so many clues yet remain utterly clueless? The screen adaptation of “The Da Vinci Code” treats the Dan Brown novel with a reverence it does not deserve and from which it does not benefit. The film was directed by Ron Howard in a style to be named later, and the screenplay by Akiva Goldsman can’t get three sentences out without resorting to expositional set-ups such as “Ah, the Grand Gallery …” or “Opus Dei. What is that?” “A controversial Catholic sect.” And before you know it, the movie has died another death trying to explain it all for you.

…

The movie version is so intent on taking its mystical and religious business seriously, at an overfull 2½ hours, it forgets to be entertaining. And it sets some sort of record for number of endings in a single picture. I counted 666. Wait a minute. Isn’t that number some sort of symbol?

Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Confidential:

… it’s a fairly flat sit. A camera crew came up to me after the screening and I said, “It’s not that deep. In fact, it’s not that good. In fact, it’s kind of plodding. In fact…”

I shrugged my shoulders and said it wasn’t painful, because it isn’t. But it sure as hell doesn’t lift off the runway. I didn’t hate it, but I was never that aroused.
…

It has a few chases, a couple of killings, one or two 180 character turns…but it’s Howard’s worst film since Far and Away.

Variety’s critic says:

… director Ron Howard and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman have conspired to drain any sense of fun out of the melodrama, leaving expectant audiences with an oppressively talky film that isn’t exactly dull but comes as close to it as one could imagine with such provocative material; result is perhaps the best thing the project’s critics could have hoped for.

But wait… there’s more.

What one is left with is high-minded lurid material sucked dry by a desperately solemn approach….

Part of the quick deflation is due to a palpable lack of chemistry between Hanks and Tautou, an odd thing in itself given their genial accessibility in many previous roles. Howard … makes them both look stiff, pasty and inexpressive here in material that provides them little opportunity to express basic human nature… It’s a film so overloaded with plot that there’s no room for anything else, from emotion to stylistic grace notes.

MSNBC:

The Cannes audience clearly grew restless as the movie dragged on to two and a half hours and spun a long sequence of anticlimactic revelations.

“I kept thinking of the Energizer Bunny, because it kept going and going and going, and not in a good way,” said James Rocchi, a film critic for CBS 5 television in San Francisco and the online outlet Cinematical. “Ron Howard makes handsome films. He doesn’t make bad ones, but he doesn’t make great ones.”

And then…

Some people walked out during the movie’s closing minutes, though there were fewer departures than many Cannes movies provoke among harsh critics. When the credits rolled, there were a few whistles and hisses, and there was none of the scattered applause even bad movies sometimes receive at Cannes.

MSN:

“I didn’t like it very much. I thought it was almost as bad as the book. Tom Hanks was a zombie. Thank goodness for Ian McKellen. It was overplayed, there was too much music and it was much too grandiose,” said Peter Brunette, critic for the US daily The Boston Globe.

“At the high point, there was laughter among the journalists. Not loud laughs, but a snicker and I think that says it all,” said Gerson Da Cunha from The Times of India.

Other critics said the two and a half hour film was confusing to those who hadn’t read the book.

“People were confused, there was no applause, just silence,” said Margherita Ferrandino from the Italian television Rai 3.

“I have only read half the book, and then I got bored. It’s terrible,” she added.

“It was really disappointing. The dialogue was cheesy. The acting wasn’t too bad, but the film is not as good as the book,” added Lina Hamchaoui, from British radio IRN.

And some Belgian reporter from Cannes named Chris Craps:

“It’s a complete mess. They didn’t show it to anybody, and now you see why. I bet Ron Howard knew it was quite shaky and that it didn’t work. They knew very well. But now a lot of people are going to see it, and the news that it’s not working is going to come too late to them. But the second week will drop off completely. It will be a real Poseidon.”

FilmFocus:

Action set pieces, themselves fairly pedestrian, become counterpoints to endless exposition scenes and no amount of sweeping camera moves can cover what is essentially a filmed lecture. Howard is faithful enough to the novel to ensure that all of the most interesting theories translate intact, but watching these characters drone them out one after enough until the film’s final moments is far from fascinating.

That the book’s key selling point is the story it wraps itself around is enough to save its film adaptation from sheer tedium, but while character can possibly be secondary to plot in a novel, on screen such a stance is destined to failure. We’re no more enlightened about Robert Langdon and his co-conspirators at the film’s end than we are as they’re first introduced.

Perhaps an interesting side-piece to those already fanatical about the book, the film version of The Da Vinci Code is ultimately a flawed and lifeless adaptation. There’s nothing technically wrong with Howard’s film, but Brown’s approach to the novel is essentially untranslatable and that’s perhaps more a criticism of the book than the film.

Film Stew:

Ron Howard knows how to ratchet up the tension in a movie; witness Apollo 13 and Backdraft. But here, instead of the film building to a white knuckle conclusion, it was the audience fidgeting as Da Vinci passed the two-hour mark and unveiled the first of its half-dozen endings. So much so that by the time the big climactic moment of the film finally arrived, the audience burst out laughing, as if this were yet another classic bit of Tom Hanks comedy. As the credits rolled, not a single bit of applause was heard.

Afterwards, as critics from around the world poured out of the Debussy, they were swarmed by two dozen camera crews looking, finally, for the first whiff of reaction to the long-awaited adaptation of Dan Brown’s mega-bestseller. Used to being on the other side of the camera, these members of the Fifth Estate could only shake their heads in astonishment, complaining about how many times Hanks and Tautou seemed to conveniently avoid capture by French police. Or, how a majority of the two-and-a-half-hour film seemed to be about endless historical exposition, most of which was presented so fast that in the end it seemed to confuse rather than enlighten the audience.

It’s safe to say that most of this Friday’s reviews of The Da Vinci Code will deem the flick a disaster. Critics from large U.S. media outlets were overheard tonight in Cannes calling the film a “snore”, a “bore” and giving it an Ebert & Roeper-worthy big thumbs down.

Sounds like Tom Hanks’ bad hairstyle is the least of the movie’s problems.

The filmmakers have been so willing to play Judas: disgrace the name of Christ for money, and turn him over to the masses. I do hope, for their sake, that they don’t finish out their portrayal of Judas. He didn’t handle his failure very well.

Of course, he had enough conscience to realize the evil in what he’d done… so there’s a point in his favor.

Blog

Ron Howard

The Da Vinci Code

Previous Post

May 17, 2006

And now, the AP with more...

Next Post

May 17, 2006 Mark Shea is saving Ireland...

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Blog Bloggers on "Through a Screen Darkly" Browser Coming Soon Endorsements Fiction Books Film Forum Film Reviews Inspirations Interviews Journal Kindlings Muse Movie buzz Music Reviews Non-Fiction Books radio Reviewers on "Through a Screen Darkly" The Auralia Thread Through a Screen Darkly Through a Screen Darkly - Bonus Materials Top 10 (or 20 or 100) lists Uncategorized

Select a Month June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 July 2003 May 2003 March 2003 September 1999

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which Old Testament book is composed mostly of love poems?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Ecclesiastes Ruth Song of Solomon Proverbs