Reviews

Viewing this as an English girl is most likely a completely different viewing experience to any American watching this film. starting with the typecasting of the English villain (sean bean), and continuing with the nauseatingly patriotic tone and general anti-englishness throughout (sorry, "britishness") (i.e. the fact that the enemy is actually designated throughout as the British, and at the end they don't even consider the British museum as a possible site for the treasure), I found this film terrible. The historical inaccuracies are laughable throughout and I felt like hitting Nicholas Cage every time he said the "declaration of independence", which, whilst I respect the declaration as an important historical document, its NOT the most important document in the whole world (how about the magna carta? Rosetta stone? dead sea scrolls???), I found myself almost hoping that they would lose it. The dialog is heavy handed throughout, and Cage's leaps of logic are quite astounding, especially considering the the Knights Templar aren't really related in any way to the Freemasons, who are throughout the world, including in england, so why would the treasure be hidden from the British if there were British Freemasons? Overall, as a movie to laugh at, and a pleasant way to spend a mindless few hours, if you can ignore the numerous inaccuracies, I would recommend this film. As a serious insight into history, I would not.

.... as it's not as good as the book but I wouldn't say that it was a major disappointment. The build-up was good, but it seemed to linger too long in France. It was a little slow to start, but once it got started, it moved along pretty well. It was well cast, though I did find it difficult when I first heard about Tom Hanks in the role, preferring someone a little more like Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones, though when he is being a professor rather than an archaeologist. But he surprised me and was actually rather good. Same with Audrey Tautou, and most of the central characters were well cast.

There were some odd moments though, like when the Bishop visits the Vatican Council and plays pool with what I can only presume is the Pope and then has a supremely modern mobile phone. Or Silas's phone and car, when he lives in a cell in order to bring himself closer to God. Little things which don't make sense. If the geography of London is not known, then it is easy to believe that Remi manages to drive all the way to Tower Bridge and then back across the river to Docklands (some 6 miles from Temple) in the same time that Langdon and Neveu take to get to Westminster on a bus only half a mile from where they started off. Plus, there's several libraries closer to Temple than Chelsea, it being on the other side of Central London, including the library originally in the book, and only a five minute walk away.

The scenes in the Louvre and Paris were fabulous though, and made me really want to revisit Paris. Several little things were left out of the book though, which was slightly disappointing, though, all in all, it made for a thoroughly entertaining film although I recommend that you read the book first!!!