First Rumblings Of A 'Da Vinci Code' Disappointment

Based on the first reviews trickling in from an eve-of-premiere press screening of The Da Vinci Code at Cannes, this might be a good time for the Imagine assistants to make a busy-work project of re-alphabetizing the office take-out menu binder in anticipation of a possible office-lockdown lunch of shame once their bosses return to LA from their promotional rail tour on the Blasphemy Express. An early Da Vinci Code panning round-up:

· "The feeling moved quickly from one of great anticipation to one of, shockingly, great boredom...instead of the film building to a white knuckle conclusion, it was the audience fidgeting as Da Vinci passed the two-hour mark and unveiled the first of its half-dozen endings...by the time the big climactic moment of the film finally arrived, the audience burst out laughing, as if this were yet another classic bit of Tom Hanks comedy. As the credits rolled, not a single bit of applause was heard." [FilmStew]
· "[R]eaction from Cannes critics ranged from mild endorsement of its potboiler suspense to groans of ridicule over its heavy melodrama. 'It's a movie about whether the greatest story ever told is true or not, and it's not the greatest movie ever screened, is it?' said Baz Bamigboye, a film columnist for London's Daily Mail. 'As a thriller, well,' he continued, shrugging." [AP]

· "'Nothing really works. It's not suspenseful. It's not romantic. It's certainly not fun,' said Stephen Schaefer of the Boston Herald. 'It seems like you're in there forever. And you're conscious of how hard everybody's working to try to make sense of something that basically perhaps is unfilmable.' [Reuters]
· "[D]irector Ron Howard and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman have conspired to drain any sense of fun out of the melodrama, leaving expectant audiences with an oppressively talky film that isn't exactly dull but comes as close to it as one could imagine with such provocative material; result is perhaps the best thing the project's critics could have hoped for." [Variety]

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