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Da Vinci Code, The
By
Source: Catholic News Service
Dan Brown's record-breaking best-seller comes to the screen with most of its spurious historical, artistic and theological misstatements intact. The film follows the book's plot of a Harvard "symbologist" (Tom Hanks) on the run from French police after the murder of a curator from the Louvre museum, with the latter's granddaughter (Audrey Tautou) in tow, as they piece together the motives for the killing, implicating the Catholic Church in a centuries-old conspiracy to suppress an explosive secret. As expected, director Ron Howard has made a glossy, competent thriller, though perhaps a little confusing for those unfamiliar with the book. The performances, including that of Sir Ian McKellen as another scholar and Paul Bettany as the albino monk-assassin, are colorful; the underlying assertions -- particularly as they question Jesus' divinity -- and the obvious falsehoods about Opus Dei are deeply abhorrent. Partly subtitled. Violence including brutal murders, crude language, irreverent underpinning, rear male nudity, scenes of corporal mortification, fleeting hint of prostitution, and glimpse of ritualistic sex. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
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