The Da Vinci Code - adapted from Dan Brown's best-selling novel - is a film with too much talk and too few thrills. Its subject matter is provocative, hinting that the Catholic Church has been covering up facts about the legend of the Holy Grail. But so much has already been said - mostly by quasi-historians who present legends and myths as facts - about the possible marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene that the subject is barely interesting anymore. Above all, director Ron Howard's storytelling is surprisingly flat. The film opens with the murder of a curator at the Louvre museum. Then Professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), an expert in religious symbols, is called in to investigate the murder. Fache, a French police officer, boringly played by Jean Reno, is convinced that Langdon is the murderer. But the latter evades the police with the help of Sophie (Audrey Tautou), a cryptologist and granddaughter of the dead curator. The pair then discover hidden messages in the works of Leonardo da Vinci. They search for the Holy Grail in Paris and London with a murderous Albino monk (Paul Bettany) breathing down their necks. We learn about the secrets of the Holy Grail mostly through conversations between the characters, who talk non-stop except when they are running. This is the most boring way to tell a story, and Howard does so with such patience that your own patience will eventually wear thin. But a major letdown of the film - apart from all its other shortcomings, such as a confusing plot, poor characterisation and over-the-top music - is Hanks' hairstyle, which makes him look old and overweight. Also, the brilliant actor never seems comfortable playing Langdon, who conveys few emotions other than contempt for conspiracy theories which are, ironically, what this movie is all about. French actress Tautou, who was brilliant in Amelie (2001), is lifeless in the movie. Her character spends the whole time either looking puzzled or wearing a solemn expression that's far too serious for a film as silly and boring as The Da Vinci Code. The Da Vinci Code is now showing
