Film Review: "The Da Vinci Code" (2006)

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past couple of years, you've heard of the novel by Dan Brown, and have also heard that it's been made into a flick starring Tom Hanks. Not having read the book, I went to see it yesterday.

As a movie, it's definitely above average. If you like thrillers, this is right up your alley. It's very well shot and incorporates the use of light and shade to enhance the suspense factor. The soundtrack helps as well. I think the panning it's received from critics is more a response to its popularity than its merits as a film. Critics ... they, and not the great unwashed masses, will determine what's good, right?

Now theologically, the premise of the entire code is laughable. I'll pick out three examples to think about.

First of all, if Jesus was not the Son of God and just some charismatic nice guy who roamed around Galilee, who were the Disciples? Jesus asked each one of the Twelve to drop what they were doing, leave their families, and come follow Him because it would give them eternal salvation in Heaven. If He was just some coolio long-haired hippie, who were these other guys that travelled with Him? Are we to believe that they were nothing more than your average groupie? I don't think so.

Second, if Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, who married them? It would have had to have been some person high up in the Jewish hierarchy of the day. You can bet that if they really were married, it would have been dragged out at some point in the last 2,000 years.

And finally, what of the Resurrection? Did He not rise from the dead two days after the Crucifixion or is that just a minor detail? The Code makes no mention of that at all, and that's the whole basis on which the Christian faith is founded.

As I say, as a thriller it's very, very good, but to those who don't have a solid grounding in Christian beliefs, it's going to be quite easy to get sucked into Code's theory that the entire notion of Christ's divinity was a hoax in order to keep women down and the Vatican at the top of the food chain. Catholic haters will no doubt find a lot of ammo in the Code, and moral relativists will love the "whatever works for you, buddy" conclusion that it leads to. (For a couple of other takes on it, see here and here.)

Whether you think the Code is plausible or if you think it's ridiculous, one thing is for sure: unlike another world religion which was recently questioned through popular media (the cartoon scandal), we haven't seen one drop of blood spilled over the Da Vinci Code. Secular or believing, that's something which we can all take note of.

Overall rating: 8.5/10