New Movie Reviews: A Code That Takes Longer to Watch Than Read

By A. O. SCOTT

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"The Da Vinci Code" is one of the few screen versions of a
book that may take longer to watch than to read. To their
credit, the director Ron Howard and his screenwriter, Akiva
Goldsman (who collaborated with Mr. Howard on "Cinderella
Man" and "A Beautiful Mind"), have streamlined Dan Brown's
story and refrained from trying to capture his, um, prose
style. To be fair, though, Mr. Goldsman conjures up some
pretty ripe dialogue all on his own. "Your God does not
forgive murderers," hisses Audrey Tautou to Paul Bettany (who
play a less than enormous, short-haired albino). "He burns
them!"

Theology aside, this remark can serve as a reminder that "The
Da Vinci Code" is, above all, a murder mystery. And as such,
once it gets going, Mr. Howard's movie has its pleasures. He
and Mr. Goldsman have deftly rearranged some elements of the
plot, unkinking a few over-elaborate twists and introducing
others that keep the action moving along. Hans Zimmer's
appropriately overwrought score, pop-romantic with some
liturgical decoration, glides us through scenes that might
otherwise be talky and inert. The movie does, however, take a
while to accelerate, popping the clutch and leaving rubber on
the road as it tries to establish who is who, what they're
doing and why.

Review:

http://movies2.nytimes.com/2006/05/17/movies/18code.html?8mu&emc=mu

Movie Details:

http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=309461&8mu&emc=mu