Last night, Steve and I rented The Da Vinci Code with our cable system’s On Demand feature. I have to say, I liked the movie better than the book. For one thing, Brown’s weak character development was not as obvious in the movie as in the book. I think, for the most part, the actors did a fairly good job with what they had to work with. Clearly, the standout was Sir Ian McKellen as Leigh Teabing. I mused aloud to my husband upon the question of why Brown would choose to take the one interesting character he wrote, the one character with whom we can sympathize, and turn him evil like that.

Steve said that had he seen the movie without reading the book, he might have perceived the movie as a bit “talky.” I don’t know if I agree, but I did feel that the movie was extremely close to the book. The only real changes I noticed were that it was not obvious Silas had broken out of jail, Sophie’s brother was omitted (as a survivor of the accident, that is), and it wasn’t explained that Rémy died of an allergic reaction to peanuts rather than a simple poison.

I’m glad I didn’t see the movie in the theater, but it was worth the $3.99 we paid to rent it. I really enjoyed seeing all the sets — the Louvre, the streets of Paris, London, and Rosslyn Chapel, although I am not sure that was really Rosslyn. It’s kind of a shame, however, when one is more attracted to the sets than the characters. I don’t think this is something that the actors could have helped. As I mentioned before, they didn’t have much to work with.

[tags]The Da Vinci Code[/tags]