Da Vinci Deliberations
June 1st, 2006
I didn’t want to be a film snob. I wanted to at least be able to put aside concerns about poor acting/directing/scriptwriting to engage with the appeal of the wider phenomenon that is “The Da Vinci Code”. I usually like Ron Howard. I really quite like Audrey Tautou (those eyes - and she speaks French, how could you not love her) and I wanted to be able to put up with Tom Hanks’ mullet. I wanted to at least have something nice to say about the movie. It’s pretty hard. I did like the “smart car” car chase, although it was plenty unbelievable enough to set the scene for the rest of the film. And I did think that Ian McKellen was very good - I do like him a lot. But the movie really didn’t do anything that the book hadn’t already done, and I certainly didn’t come out feeling as though it had been at all thought provoking.
Poor Audrey Tautou was fed some horrifically bad lines. One of the most unintentionally funny things in the film was when Tom Hanks has just said that the letters are all scrambled up, and the line from Tautou is “An anagram?”. Even Tom Hanks looks at her like she’s an idiot. I couldn’t not help laughing at that.
There’s no doubt that the ideas behind the book have caused at very least discussion (and at worst, the church whining about how bad they look). And so I’m glad that I’ve seen the film, so that if it comes up in chats with work people that I have a reference point from which to be able to explain why I believe that as non-fiction it is a festering pile of cow dung.
June 2nd, 2006 at 12:01 pm
Geoff, your incredulous laughter at Audrey Tatou’s ‘An anogram?’ set me up for laughing the whole way through the movie! Why they had to give that line to such a smart/pretty cookie I don’t know.
June 2nd, 2006 at 1:43 pm
I’m not sure whether I’m apologising for that or not. Hopefully it made the film a bit more fun. I haven’t seen a film with that many unintentionally funny scenes in it since Catwoman.
June 2nd, 2006 at 2:38 pm
Certainly beats tripping over peoples feet after I came in late (hope that wasn’t seen) I had only just worked out where you all were, sat down, shuffled seats (blame Marty), passed three bags of M&M’s down the row (unfortunately never to see them again) and just caught the anagram comment by at which point I wasn’t quite ready to scoff at the movie - oh but that certainly came.
^and I wrote that just so I can fix your spelling again
Tautou. and you’re right, if girls can say someone is beautiful, she just about beats most.
June 2nd, 2006 at 2:44 pm
I’m not sure what happened about the M&M’s then - those bags came past us sooooo many times, and we were certainly sending them back.
I’ve gotta stop posting when I’m feeling lazy. I knew that Tatou didn’t look right, but I didn’t have the inspiration to check. You’re very brave though - correcting someone’s spelling is the universally accepted mode of permission for them to correct yours
June 2nd, 2006 at 9:39 pm
I can back Geoff on the sending M&M’s back up the row - I was actually getting a little sick of the sight of those plastic wrappers that just seem to make too much noise at all the wrong times!
No need for an apology - it’s good to know I wasn’t the only one secretly scoffing at the script.
June 8th, 2006 at 4:37 pm
I actually enjoyed the movie from a fiction perspective, but did laugh at the anagram comment, and also how Ian McKellons mouth movements yelling from the car at one stage matched the police car sirens! i laughed hard, but no one else did in the cinema, oh well!!!!
I thought a real lowlight of Tautou’s character was her attempt at walking on water!!!!!!