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Critics slate The Da Vinci Code
17/05/2006 07:49 - (SA)
Jo Biddle
Cannes - The most hotly-awaited movie of the year, The Da Vinci Code, failed to crack an audience of movie critics at a sneak preview ahead of Wednesday's opening of the Cannes Film Festival.
Several whistles instead of applause were all that greeted the end of Ron Howard's $125m film, and worse than that, the 2 000-strong audience even burst out laughing at the movie's key moment.
"I didn't like it very much. I thought it was almost as bad as the book. Tom Hanks was a zombie, thank goodness for Ian McKellen. It was overplayed, there was too much music and it was much too grandiose," said Peter Brunette, critic for the US daily The Boston Globe.
Mega-selling book
The film version of Dan Brown's mega-best selling book premieres in Cannes on Wednesday before being released worldwide on Friday. It stars Tom Hanks as symbologist Robert Langdon, called in after the curator of the Louvre is found murdered, his body splayed out and covered in symbols.
Langdon and police cryptologist Sophie Neveu, played by French actress Audrey Tautou, find themselves ensnared in a mystifying hunt to track down the murderer and solve a 2 000-year-old riddle.
The book has already sold some 50 million copies worldwide, been translated into 44 languages and spawned a spin-off tourist industry as well as whipping up a controversy. All ingredients to ensure the movie will undoubtedly draw the crowds.
Laughter at film's key moment
The greatest controversy has been stirred by the book's central theme that Jesus Christ married and had children, whose descendants still survive today.
The book's detractors will no doubt be comforted to hear that when Hanks reveals who is supposedly the last surviving descendant of Jesus, the Cannes audience couldn't hold back their laughter.
"At the high point, there was laughter among the journalists. Not loud laughs, but a snicker and I think that says it all," said Gerson Da Cunha from The Times of India.
Confusing
Other critics said the two-and-a-half hour film was confusing to those who hadn't read the book.
"People were confused, there was no applause, just silence," said Margherita Ferrandino from the Italian television Rai 3.
Film becomes a drama-documentary
Despite being filmed against the backdrop of some impressive and historic buildings - Howard was even given unprecedented permission to film inside the Louvre - the film fails to convince, becoming more of a drama-documentary with its overuse of historic flashbacks and other devices to tell the tale.
Hanks seems to get bogged down in the interminable dialogue, whereas Tautou, so brilliant in Amelie, fails to make an impression.
Good performances
British actor Sir Ian McKellan however received plaudits for his portrayal of Holy Grail expert Sir Leigh Teabing, playing his role with the right amount of wit and humour.
And Paul Bettany is suitably menacing as a self-flagellating albino monk on a mission to kill.
The film will open the 59th Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, before the real competition gets underway on Thursday, with 20 films competing this year for the coveted Palme d'Or.
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South Africa
