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The Da Vinci Code
- 2006 Ron Howard - Director and Dan Brown - Producer
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  Amongst the insufferable buzz preceding the release of THE DA VINCI CODE, were the vehement protests from both the mainstream Catholics and Opus Dei (the antagonists in the story). The reasonable assumption at this point would be that if the author and Producer Dan Brown were able to antagonize both parties, he must be doing something right. But don't assume. You are forgetting the possibility that he might be able to offend virtually everyone.
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It is truly unfortunate that so many of those people who watched this film were unable to divorce themselves from their emotional response to the religious issues, and judge the movie solely on it's merits. Virtually everyone we spoke to just couldn't contain themselves - they either fell into a defense of one religious position, or an attack-mode on the other. Alas, even those who were capable of dispassionately discussing the film were forced to judge the movie on it's demerits - not merits.
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First, let's discuss casting. Hollywood has obviously forgotten that the people in 'Casting' are supposed to find actors who are at least halfway believable in their parts. And yet, virtually no one was suitably cast in THE DA VINCI CODE - no one was really 'convincing' to audiences. Let's take just one example; Silas the albino - who, in the original story was a hardened, dangerous, street-wise sociopath who had "found God" in a brutal prison (as he necessarily would have had to be to 'progress' the plot). In the movie, however, Silas (Paul Bettany) looked, and acted like a bleach-blond sideman for David Bowie. (As a humorous aside, in real life, an organization of albinos is mad as Hell, and have joined the ranks of those groups protesting the release of THE DA VINCI CODE - they complain they, yet again, have been cast as evil 'heavies'.) We could go on, but brevity is next to Godliness.
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To be even more brief, let's compare THE DA VINCI CODE hype with the reality. I was able to find a seat in a sold-out showing on day two. When the lights came up, half the seats were long empty. Read the book if you absolutely have to - but skip the flick.
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Enduring Line or Phrase: "From the moment man invented 'one God', we have been killing each other in His name."
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