A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Da Vinci Code” (2006, 3*, 12).
Today, September 9th 2025, sees the launch of the new Dan Brown novel featuring Robert Langdon – “The Secret of Secrets”. To commemorate that, Everyman Cinemas are reshowing the 2006 version of “The Da Vinci Code”, with the film including a personal introduction from Dan Brown himself.
It was good to see the film on the big screen again…. but the film has a number of holes before we ever approach the outrageous fabrications within the book!
As this film is nearly 20 years old and anyone who wants to will surely have seen it by now, there will be a few spoilers in this write up.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
The French police, led by Bezu Fache (Jean Reno), bring in the skills of symbology professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) to help solve the brutal murder of a fellow historian Jacques Saunière (Jean-Pierre Marielle) who has been found on the Louvre floor, his body self-carved with symbols.
Certification:
UK: 12; US: PG-13. (From the BBFC web site: “Contains flagellation and other moderate violence”. Interestingly, the BBFC required Sony to tone down the sound levels and intensity of Hans Zimmer’s music in order to get the 12 certificate. It seems a bit bizarre 20 years later, but the censors found the music “too tense for young children” and deemed the sound effects during acts of violence potentially too impactful for a 12 rating.)
Talent:
Starring: Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Jean Reno, Ian McKellen, Paul Bettany, Alfred Molina, Jürgen Prochnow, Jean-Yves Berteloot, Etienne Chicot, Jean-Pierre Marielle.
Directed by: Ron Howard.
Written by: Akiva Goldsman. (From the novel by Dan Brown.)
Running Time: 2h 29m.
Summary:
Positives:
- It reflects the rollicking nonsense of the book as best it can.
- Audrey Tatou makes for a personable Sophie Neveu.
- It’s a classic Hans Zimmer score.
Negatives:
- Some of the dialogue is excruciating and sometimes Hanks doesn’t seem to have confidence in it.
- Elements of the plot, altered for the film, come over as laughably bad.
Full Review of “The Da Vinci Code”:
It’s utter bunkum… but classy bunkum.
I have to hand it to Dan Brown that he wrote a clever book. The book performs that neat trick of taking a whole series of half-truths and bending them into a thriller format that makes you question your own interpretation of history. I know a lot of intellectuals ‘pooh-pooh’ the book as being trash. But I well remember when first reading the book just what a page-turner it was!
The story of course follows the search by Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu – Saunière’s granddaughter – for the Holy Grail with the twist being that the Grail is not an actual cup of Christ but the sarcophagus of Mary Magdalene. The film claims that Magdalene was pregnant with Christ’s child during the time of the crucifixion and secret societies, including the Knights Templar and the Priory of Sion, were tasked with protecting the existence and identity of Christ’s royal bloodline on earth.
For the film version, Ron Howard did his best with a complex narrative and some seriously tricky film-making challenges. How do you make a whole load of speechifying about historical ‘facts’ interesting? Howard does this by including black-and-white fades into various dramatic battles and a religious congress that drips with opulence and costumery. These must have cost an awful lot to film! (Thankfully, we are spared a flashback to a sex scene between Jesus and Mary Magdalene… this would no doubt have made the Lars von Trier version of the film!).
Is Hanks Robert Langdon?
I’m never quite sure whether Hanks really ever matched my mental image of Robert Langdon. And – possibly because I’m inserting that doubt into my viewing – Hanks never seems to me to be all that comfortable with the role either. Some of the lines of dialogue he has to spout are so nonsensical that you can imagine him objecting to Ron Howard “BUT I’M A TRAINED ACTOR!!!”. In particular, I feel that a scene in the crypt of Rosslyn chapel in Scotland, where Langdon pompously states to Sophie “You are the last living descendant of Jesus Christ”, must have taken Hanks several takes before he could deliver it with a straight face.
Sir Ian McKellen has no such trouble throwing himself into the role of famous grail historian Sir Leigh Teabing. McKellen dials it to 11 and basically stays there until the finale where he goes to 12!
Coming out of this best of all is Audrey Tautou as ‘Princess Sophie’. Tautou, most famous for her role as “Amélie”, feels perfectly cast, with just the right level of grit and innocence to carry the role.
Some really dodgy changes.
Sadly, where the wheels really come off this one for me are in some of the scenes where the script has butchered the context and flow of the book’s narrative.
The first of these is the unexplained actions of the bank employee Andre Vernet (Jürgen Prochnow) which in the film come across as some sort of simple robbery (which makes no sense!). The book far better explains his reasons, but all of that dialogue is excised from the script.
Worse still is the scene in Temple Church in London. A fairly complex dynamic involving Langdon, Teabing and Neveu vs both Remy Jean (Jean-Yves Berteloot) AND Silas (Paul Bettany) is reduced to just Remy and a ridiculous escape thanks to a pigeon distraction which is just plain stupid!
A classic Zimmer theme.
You can’t not reference this classic Grail theme by Hans Zimmer, one of his best.
Summary Thoughts:
I actually remember this film as better than this when I first saw it. In any case, the film does not live up to the page-turning qualities of the book and at a lengthy 149 minutes, its a bit of a slog. It is, however, better than the filmed version of Brown’s “Inferno” which totally subverted the book’s ending to gasps of surprise from readers in the audience that was quite amusing!
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sU9MT8829k.
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