Should I Watch..? 'The Da Vinci Code' (2006)

What's the big deal?

The Da Vinci Code is a mystery thriller film released in 2006 and is based on the novel of the same name by Dan Brown. It is the first film to feature Brown's character Robert Langdon and sees the religious symbology professor from Harvard thrown into a murder mystery when the curator of the Louvre in Paris is found murdered within the gallery, sparking a violent hunt for a secret Catholic relic. The film stars Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Jean Reno, Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina, Jürgen Prochnow and Paul Bettany and the film was directed by Ron Howard. Like the book, the film was hugely popular with people all over the world despite its inherent controversy of its narrative. It earned $760 million globally, making it one of the biggest films of the year but critics were not impressed with the film, which also earned a nomination for Howard for Worst Director at the notorious Razzie awards. The Da Vinci Code was followed sequels Angels & Demons in 2009 and Inferno in 2016.

Forgettable

What's it about?

Jacques Saunière is a curator at the Louvre who finds himself being pursued through the gallery one night by a strange albino monk, Silas. Silas demands that Saunière gives up the location of something called the keystone but when Saunière does, Silas murders him anyway. The police arrive not long after and Captain Bezu Fache begins his investigation, discovering Saunière's body naked and covered in unusual symbols. Captain Fache contacts American religious symbologist Robert Langdon, who was supposed to meet Saunière earlier that day in the middle of his latest book tour.

The two of them are soon joined at the crime scene by police cryptologist Sophie Neveu, who quickly informs Robert that Fache is aiming to arrest him for the murder. By tricking the police into thinking Robert was fleeing the scene, Sophie and Robert begin conducting their own investigation and soon uncover a series of clues inside the Louvre pointing to a centuries-old conspiracy involving the Catholic church, hidden relics, lots of obtuse clues and a secret so terrible that it could tear the fabric of Christianity apart.

Trailer

What's to like?

Having not read Brown's book, I have no idea how accurate the film is to the source material. While I regard his narrative with a healthy degree of scepticism, I can at least appreciate the yarn he's trying to spin. The film is basically a series of riddles of ridiculous complexity than only Langdon is uniquely able to solve followed by a high-intensity pursuit from the various forces opposing them. It's like a more mathematical version of Raiders Of The Lost Ark but far less thrilling. The film is more concerned with creating a dark air of paranoia and possibly otherworldly enemies in the form of Bettany's extremely devout assassin, who seems to have an unusual obsession with self flagellation. It's atmospheric and for those who are already suspicious of organised religion, this film will do nothing to allay those fears.

Despite the silliness of the plot, the film plays it dead straight with a series of hard-nosed performances with almost no lightness at all. Hell, most of the film seems to take place entirely at night! Fortunately, McKellen delivers a wonderfully hammy performance as eccentric Grail expert Leigh Teabing who not only inexplicably lives in a grand mansion in France but also is able to afford his own private plane. He seems to be the only cast member to treat the film with the lightness of touch it needed - if it wasn't trying to be so serious then this could have been much more fun, like Disney's Brown-influenced knock-off National Treasure. Hanks and Tautou lead the cast with plenty of aplomb and there's great support from Reno (as always) and Molina. I just wish it didn't take itself so seriously.

Fun Facts

• The Da Vinci Code is actually the second book in Brown's series of books, following Angels & Demons. When The Da Vinci Code was filmed, it wasn't known if it was going to be a success so it was produced as a stand-alone film. When Angels & Demons was then green-lit, it was decided to make it as a sequel instead of a prequel.
• Westminster Abbey refused to allow filming to take place inside the abbey so instead, it was filmed at Lincoln Cathedral. Filming meant that the cathedral's large bell known as Great Tom - which normally rings every hour - had to be silenced for the first time since the Second World War.
• Sir Leigh Teabing is named after Richard Leigh and Michael Baigent (Teabing being an anagram of his surname), two authors whose book The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail covers a similar theory to Brown's story, although Brown denies using the book for inspiration. Both of them attempted to sue Brown for copyright infringement but were unsuccessful.
• The film was banned in many countries including Belarus, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Jordan, China, Egypt, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Samoa and many parts of India. There were also heavy protests in the Philippines but the film was released in full, albeit with the equivalent of an 18 rating.

What's not to like?

Let's just address the elephant in the room first, shall we? The story is a) strictly a work of fiction and b) not a particularly convincing one. In short, it's a load of rubbish but let's be honest, that doesn't appear to harm a film's box office appeal if this and Fifty Shades Of Grey are anything to go by. Right, let's address the film itself.

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For starters, it is way too dull to be the sort of adventure it aspires to be. It appears to take place mostly at night and only lasts a couple of days or so which seems as far-fetched as the narrative itself. What also seems unlikely is the complete lack of reaction from Langdon and Neveu as they uncover more of the conspiracy. Hanks and Tautou show no signs of emotion even as they come under gunfire, which kinda strips the film of the tension it's trying to generate. The story doesn't make a whole lot of sense, even at a practical level and without the ludicrousness of the narrative. For example, not only is the film trying to convince us about the Holy Grail and what it is but it's also trying to convince us that a dying man is able to strip himself naked, paint a number of oblique clues on the floor and around the museum in his own blood and arrange himself in the form of Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. Come on!

So not only is this film more ridiculous than National Treasure, a film which had Nicolas Cage hunting treasure using a map on the back of the Declaration of Independence, but it's also less fun. The Da Vinci Code carries itself as though it believes its own story, that this mystery is so big that the stakes are serious enough to not leave any room for comedy. Even Bettany's murderous monk is a character beyond the very limits of plausability so we never really buy into the concept. It feels too fantastical but the filmmakers want us to take it seriously, which was the wrong decision. If the film was any fun then the narrative wouldn't have been so bad but it's formulaic, excessively long and not very exciting. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it's boring and for any film, that's the kiss of death.

Should I watch it?

Fans of the book will get the most out of this and if I'm honest, any fan of the book won't be as discerning of the film's quality as I am. The film is too long, dull, treats itself way too seriously and never once addresses the silliness at the heart of the story. The cast are largely underwhelming except McKellen in a hammy mood but at least the film tries hard to convince to buy into the BS it's pushing. If the church were angry about this film before they watched it, they'd be bored into submission if they only paid for a ticket.

Great For: whipping up religious fervour, fuelling book sales, residents of Paris which looks nice at night, conspiracy theorists

Not So Great For: the Catholic church, anyone taking this pish seriously, anyone hoping this film would be fun

What else should I watch?

By the end of the Noughties, interest in Dan Brown's work was beginning to dwindle which may explain why neither of the sequels generated as much business as The Da Vinci Code. Angels & Demons, for what it's worth, was actually considered a slight improvement on its predecessor but made considerably less at the box office while Inferno felt like the last roll of Langdon's cryptic dice, a more stripped-back and cheaper affair that failed to reclaim the interest of lapsed fans. The truth is that movies have enjoyed a number of thrilling adventures for decades before Brown's derivative work came along and converted a book inspired by the movies back into a film was never going to work. It's like reading a manual translated back into English after it had originally been translated from English - you can kinda understand what it's saying but there's a lot missing from the finished article.

Treasure hunting has long been a staple component of adventure cinema since the dawn of the medium. Perhaps the most famous of these is the Indiana Jones franchise, which recently lurched out of retirement in 2023 like a reanimated mummy in Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny. I've already mentioned National Treasure which is fairly similar in style to The Da Vinci Code but is far more enjoyable, as is the sequel Book Of Secrets. A more action-orientated affair can be had with the Tomb Raider films which sees buxom "archaeologist" Lara Croft (played by Angelina Jolie in the first two and Alicia Vikander in the 2018 reboot) engaging in all sorts of shenanigans whilst thieving from the dead. Or for a more family friendly affair, the digitally animated The Adventures of Tintin does a great job of bringing the boy journalist to life and provides a wild ride for fans both young and old to enjoy.

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