“The Da Vinci Code” Bombing Big Time

And this among critics and the Cannes glitterati who have no particular affinity for the Catholic Church.

According to CNN:

At Cannes, one scene during the film, meant to be serious, elicited prolonged laughter from the audience, and when the credits rolled, there was no applause, only a few catcalls and hisses. Things were no better Stateside, where the film screened for critics in New York.

According to Reuters:

Opening the annual Cannes film festival, Ron Howard’s adaptation of the Dan Brown bestseller was described variously as “grim,” “unwieldy” and “plodding.”

Another Reuters article quotes movie critics:

“‘Da Vinci’ never rises to the level of a guilty pleasure. Too much guilt. Not enough pleasure,” said Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter.

He called Tom Hanks’s performance as symbologist Robert Langdon “remote, even wooden,” and found the long passages of religious and historical debate cumbersome.

Lee Marshall of Screen International agreed.

“I haven’t read the book, but I just thought there was a ridiculous amount of exposition,” he told Reuters.

“I thought it was plodding and there was a complete lack of chemistry between Audrey Tautou and Tom Hanks.”

While critics argue that the controversy surrounding the film, and the fact that more than 40 million people have bought the book, will ensure a strong box office performance, word-of-mouth is likely to hit sales later on.

We have long planned to avoid the film, because we don’t like to put money in the pockets of people who trade in anti-religious prejudice.

It’s not that we think people like Tom Hanks and Ron Howard are on some anti-Christian crusade. Rather, they seem to be merely heedless and clueless.

But that’s bad enough.

Apparently, we won’t be missing much.