The Da Vinci Code (2006)

Director:

Ron Howard

Writers (WGA):

Akiva Goldsman (screenplay)
Dan Brown (novel)

Release Date:

19 May 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Seek The Truth

Plot:

A murder inside the Louvre and clues in Da Vinci paintings lead to the discovery of a religious mystery protected by a secret society for two thousand years -- which could shake the foundations of Christianity.

Plot Keywords:

Secret | Murder | Chase | Opus Dei | Mary Magdalene

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 16 nominations

Cast

Tom Hanks	...	Dr. Robert Langdon
Audrey Tautou	...	Agent Sophie Neveu
Ian McKellen	...	Sir Leigh Teabing
Jean Reno	...	Captain Bezu Fache
Paul Bettany	...	Silas
Alfred Molina	...	Bishop Manuel Aringarosa
Jürgen Prochnow	...	Andre Vernet
Jean-Yves Berteloot	...	Remy Jean
Etienne Chicot	...	Lt. Collet
Jean-Pierre Marielle	...	Jacques Saunière
Marie-Françoise Audollent	...	Sister Sandrine
Rita Davies	...	Elegant Woman at Rosslyn
Francesco Carnelutti	...	Prefect
Seth Gabel	...	Michael
Shane Zaza	...	Youth on Bus

Also Known As:

The DaVinci Code (International: English title) (alternative spelling)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for disturbing images, violence, some nudity, thematic material, brief drug references and sexual content.

Runtime:

149 min | 174 min (extended cut)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | Latin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS | SDDS (8 channels)

Certification:

Ireland:15A | New Zealand:M | Australia:M | Norway:15 | Finland:K-15 | Germany:12 | South Korea:15 | Singapore:NC-16 | UK:12A | Portugal:M/12 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Malaysia:18PL | Philippines:R-18 | Argentina:13 | Brazil:14 | Netherlands:12 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #41475) | Poland:15 | Venezuela:PG-13 | Sweden:11 | Canada:14A (British Columbia/Ontario) | Mexico:B15 | Hungary:16 | India:A | Spain:13 | Hong Kong:IIA | Iceland:14 (original rating) | China:13 | Peru:14 | Italy:T (cinema rating) | Italy:VM18 (tv rating) | Taiwan:PG-12

Filming Locations:

Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage, Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Columbia Pictures

Trivia:

The novel contains a sequence in which Sophie and Langdon escape from a museum guard by Sophie threatening to destroy a Da Vinci painting. These scenes are not in the theatrical release of the film, although they were filmed and images from the scene are included with the published screenplay. Some of these scenes are restored to the film in the Extended Edition DVD, available in Great Britain (region 2), but as of 2007, not available in the Americas.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Robert and Sophie jump into the armored vehicle and drive off the rear doors are open. The camera shows Vernet on the ground watching the van drive off with the doors now closed.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Silas: Stop now. Tell me where it is.
[removes hood]
Silas: You and your brethren possess what is not rightfully yours.
Jacques Saunière: I don't know what you are talking about.
Silas: Is it a secret you will die for?
Jacques Saunière: Please...
Silas: As you wish.
[cocks gun]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Dags dato: Dags dato Special: Jesus og Da Vinci mysteriet" (2006)

Soundtrack:

Phiano

better than many critics have given it credit for

From the way the critics have gone after "The Da Vinci Code," you'd think that Ron Howard himself had been jealously guarding the location of the Holy Grail all these years and was just now revealing it to all the world for his own nefarious (i.e. commercial) purposes. Actually, despite all the critical hostility and rancor, this turns out to be a reasonably entertaining adaptation of a reasonably entertaining novel, far from a classic or a work of art, but hardly the pile of cinematic refuse so many of the reviewers have led us to believe it is.

As a work of history, the novel is a passel of nonsense, and only those with a bent towards conspiracy theory overload would be foolish enough to believe a minute of it. But as a work of imaginative fiction, "The Da Vinci Code" certainly gives its audience the neck-twisting workout they've paid good money to receive.

It would be pointless to reiterate the plot of a novel that has probably had the biggest readership of any literary work since "Gone With the Wind." Suffice it to say that a mysterious murder in the Louvre sends a Harvard symbologist and the dead man's granddaughter on a clue-driven search for the famed Holy Grail. Along the way, the two uncover a grand conspiracy on the part of a renegade Catholic order to protect a secret that, if it were revealed, could shake the whole of Western civilization down to its very foundations.

Despite the phenomenal - one is tempted to say "unprecedented" - commercial success of his work, Dan Brown is no great shakes as a writer; his characters are, almost without exception, drab and two-dimensional, and his dialogue, when it isn't being overly explicit in pouring out explanations, sounds like it was written by a first-year student in a Writer's 101 workshop. But the one undeniable talent Brown does have is his ability to knit together a preposterously complex web of codes and clues into an airtight tapestry, and to make it all convincing.

The movie is very faithful to the novel in this respect. It moves quickly from location to location, never giving us too much time to question the logic (or illogic) of the narrative or to examine the many gaping plot holes in any great detail. Writer Akiva Goldsman has encountered his greatest trouble in the scenes in which the action stops dead in its tracks so that the characters can lay out in laborious detail the elaborate story behind the clues. Yet, this is as much the fault of the nature and design of the novel as it is of the man given the unenviable task of bringing it to the screen. Moreover, perhaps in the interest of time and keeping the action flowing, Robert and Sophie come up with solutions to the myriad riddles much too quickly and accurately, with a "Golly, gee, could it mean_______?" attitude that borders on the ludicrous. But, somehow, Howard makes most of it work. Perhaps, it's the clunky literal-minded earnestness with which he approaches the subject that ultimately allows us to buy into it against our better judgment.

Tom Hanks is stolid and passive as Dr. Robert Langdon, the college professor involuntarily driven into all this cloak-and-dagger intrigue, but Audrey Tautou has a certain subtle charm as Sophie, the woman who may play more of a part in the unraveling of the mystery than even she herself can imagine. Jean Reno and Paul Bettany have their moments as two of the less savory players in the story, but it is Ian McKellen as Sir Leigh Teabing, an expert on all things related to the Holy Grail, who walks off with the film. His scenery-chewing shtick pumps some much needed life into a tale essentially populated by underdeveloped stick figures.

The religious controversy surrounding both the novel and the film is as ludicrous as it is unjustified. Anyone whose belief system could be seriously shaken by this absurd mixture of unsubstantiated myth-making and plain old-fashioned wild speculation couldn't have had a very solid foundation of faith to begin with.

The rest of us can appreciate "The Da Vinci Code" for what it is, an overblown but epic exercise in code-busting and clue-decoding - in short, the "Gone With the Wind" of whodunits.