Below is an actual review by my actual daughter and my response. I loved the book, probably because of all the art mentioned. I was hopeful that the movie would be equally entertaining. And that is the key word -ENTERTAINING. Things can be entertaining without being the truth. "Scrubs" is entertaining but I hope to God it's fiction. Ditto, "The Office". And this is where I get super perturbed with the street corner fundamentalists. It's like they are doing a daily performance of "Debbie Downer" and proceed to suck the joy and humor out of every single day's experience. I realize there are some serious things in life, but if God had meant us to wander around in perpetual depression and fear he wouldn't have invented Prozac. I am tired tired tired of every single aspect of existence being weighed and found wanting by one group or another. Our schools are rife with lawsuits both pro and con of people that are far more concerned with their own beliefs and dismissive of the beliefs of others. Our textbooks must pass through hurdles of political correctness and rings of fire of religious scrutiny. While I wouldn't prevent anyone from practicing their faith, more and more I see people use their faith as a social weapon. People are accepted or dismissed from social and professional groups based on whether they attend church, and if so, which one. I have been preached at by those who leave the precepts of Christianity on the doorstep of the church when they leave on Sunday and been informed of my eternal destination by those who claim to have the "only" knowledge based on their pastor's interpretation of a Bible that has gone through numerous edits since its inception. Here's the scoop folks....I will accept that you and I are different, have different ideas and beliefs and I will let you live your life. But I expect the same consideration. More and more, the religious intolerance on BOTH sides is tearing us apart. And what's more, as with politics, it isn't the vast 80% in the middle of the issue, it's the 10% at either end of the spectrum that are pushing this fight. "The DaVinci Code" is just a movie and should be judged on only its merits as entertainment. This dogfight between extremists is dragging us all down. How about the 80% of us in the middle leave them to fight it out and we go get a glass of iced tea or better yet, a margarita?
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From:
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Sent: Saturday, May 20, 2006 11:18 AM
Subject: Review of Da Vinci Code
Thought you'd like to see the review I wrote on Yahoo about the DVC. I saw it last night, very good, and needlessly slammed by critics per usual. Enjoy:As an avid Dan Brown reader, I of course was one of the first in line to view the Da Vinci Code. My friends and I, all who had read the book, weren't expecting much from the movie, not only because of the poor reviews it was given by critics but the identical reviews it was given by close friends of ours. Everyone kept stating "if you read the book and enjoyed it, this movie will frustrate you and leave you unsatisfied."However, I found this to be quite the contrary to my actual experience of the movie. Ron Ho wards' directing was phenomenal. His grasp of the knowledge that Brown stuffed into his award-winning novel was flawlessly portrayed. Admittedly, there were a few points in the movie he may have skipped over or changed--for example, using the cellular phone to find information on the Knight's tomb was much less intense than Brown's original use of the library, however it was possibly more believable considering their time constraints. I also thought that the character of Sophie Neveu could've been played harder and less like the doe-eyed Sophie we saw. But overall, I found Howard's choices to be tasteful and helped the movie flow seamlessly.As for the other actor's portrayls, I felt that Tom Hanks nailed his character of Robert Langdon to a T. I heard that many felt his performance was lacking and that Ian McKellan stole the show as Teabing. While Teabing's excessive character turned-bad guy was a perfect role for McKellan, I hardly felt that it overpowered the role of Langdon. Perhaps because Langdon was the only real NORMAL character, not excessive in any light as a college professor, that many were put off by Hanks' performance, but what I saw was the everyman and how he would react in such a situation and that is often harder to act than a character with eccentric personality traits.I feel that the problem that many critics and viewers had with this movie is that they were expecting such a great novel to turn into an epic movie like Lord of the Rings, Narnia, or even the Matrix. However, I think that we've been thrust into this mindset so often today that we forget a good movie can be UNDER three hours long and still have a fully developed plot with interesting characters. Whether the subject-matter offends you or not, everyone has to admit that this movie was impressive and true to the story.
CK:I hope they post it. I saw the reviews, looking for some insight, on MSN and most of them seem to be KneeJerk Christians with political and religious axes to grind. In fact, it appeared that less than half of the derogatory postings came from people that had actually SEEN THE MOVIE, which I would think is one of the first criteria for a review. While I consider myself conservative, I am getting really peeved with people that have to inject their religious opinion into EVERY FREAKIN SEGMENT OF LIFE. There is such a thing as FICTION, just as there is such a thing as OPINION. Qualified opinions are those that review an actual event or production as it is, not as they think it is meant to be. It makes me want to scream out loud. Don't sweat the small stuff.
Love ya,
Mom
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