Ever since my escape from the Best Seller list of 1968, I've been trying to catch up on my movie watching because I believe that movies, or as the French say cinema,are the medium and the message, to riff on the indispensable theorist of another age Marshall McLuhan. I have not read Dan Brown's rather thick tome so I found the opening of the movie rather unclear, confusing even mysterious, but not in a way that lent credibility to the story line.For me it was a rough start, cranking the engine of believability was a arduous task, it badly sputtered. Mr. Howard pitched the melodramatic level of this film to an audience of television watchers of several generations past. He favored superimposition of image over image, which lent to a muddied visual image and the tomb of Mary Madelene resembled something like Walt Disney would have produced, it lacked period authenticity, in fact most of the scenes of the past reeked a cartoonish quality. And one can only regret that it was much to long and rather boring, even the portentous, cliche ridden score couldn't rescue one from the wish that it might swiftly end. Even if Mr. Hanks and Audrey Tautou were left hanging in mid air, but as long as the wonderful Mr. Ian McKellen was present to enliven the melodrama with some much needed energy and panache, I muddled through. I can console my self with the knowledge that this was a box office smash. I can't wait to watch Angels and Demons. I marvel ,as a visitor from the past, at the DVD and Net Flicks not to speak of the sheer miracle of the Internet!
Truly Yours,
Myra Breckenridge
Film Critic at large