Connection: Audrey Tautou is Sophie Neveu in The Da Vinci Code.

Code not so cracked
The Da Vinci Code
Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina, Jean Reno and Paul Bettany

Religious conspiracies are always intriguing. They’re usually based on someone interpreting a fact a certain way, then making up a believable story to go with it.

This religious conspiracy’s first scenes are in Paris by night. Captivating. Police chases, art and musty churches are all involved and make The Da Vinci Code worth watching for the suspense alone.

The film was slammed by the critics for countless reasons, maybe just in an attempt to bring down the success of the novel on which it was based. I’ve not read the book, so can’t compare the two. The Da Vinci Code the film stands up by itself though.

For those few folk who have refused to read the book just because everyone else has, the story line is simple. A man is found dead in the Louvre. He has been shot, but set up his own body like Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, with a series of clues.

American religious symbology professor Robert Langdon (Hanks) is called on to decipher the clues and is suspected as being the murderer.

The dead man’s grand-daughter Sophie Neveu (Tautou) and Langdon try to find who killed her grand-father, but are led deeper and deeper into a mystery that, when solved, may change the way the world views Christianity.

Tautou proves her versatility as an actor and Hanks has a nice thatch of hair.

4 out of 5 stars

– LT Simone Heyer