May 10, 2009
Hanks Returns In "Angels & Demons"
David Edelstein Says, Unlike "Da Vinci Code," The Religious Thriller Is Stylish And Scary
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Pierfrancesco Favino, Tom Hanks, Ayelet Zurer and David Pasquesi star in "Angels & Demons," from the author of "The Da Vinci Code." (Columbia Pictures)
Ron Howard and Tom Hanks are back with "Angels & Demons," a "DaVinci Code" sequel set in Rome and the Vatican.
Stories
- Story: A Stylish and Scary Film
- Story: Indy Without The Whip?
- Story: Vatican Calls It Harmless
- Story: Howard Accuses Vatican of Obstruction
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A few Catholic groups are up in arms about the new film of Dan Brown's "Angels & Demons," and while I'm not a Catholic, I think, respectfully, they're calling it wrong.
It's true, Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" would have gotten him burned at the stake four hundred years ago: It spun a counter-theology around Mary that bordered on pagan goddess worship, and made the fervent Opus Dei sect a bunch of homicidal zealots.
But Ron Howard's film was so divinely uninspired, so all-encompassingly lame, that most Catholic leaders came out and told the picketers, "Never mind." It was a hit, but it stank to heaven.
Howard does a hundred times better with "Angels & Demons," which brings back Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, the well-tailored Harvard "symbologist." This movie is shapely and stylish and very, very scary - and Hanks has much better hair!
It's also mildly subversive, although to tell you why I'd have to reveal the idiotic conclusion - and I won't do that, or lightning will strike me.
The point is, a pope has suddenly died, the streets of Rome are awash in blood, and the Vatican must reach out to Langdon, its old adversary.
And it's not just four cardinals at risk … it's Vatican City. Someone, maybe the ancient anti-Vatican, pro-science sect the Illuminati, has stolen a God bomb.
Ayelet Zurer costars as comely Italian particle physicist Vittoria Vetri. She and Hanks' Langdon team up for what amounts to a furious scavenger hunt from cathedral to square to skull-laden crypt.
They parse clues, they jump into and out of cars, and almost always arrive too late to stop the carnage of cardinals.
And carnage it is: "Angels & Demons" is rated PG-13 despite splattery shootings, brandings, and close-ups of holy men writhing in flames.
On the other hand, there's no nudity! Also, the Lord's name isn't taken in vain. And that's what I'm getting at here.
The biggest danger to organized religion these days isn't from liberals like Dan Brown who take potshots at dogmatists. It's from Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and other bestselling atheists. "Angels & Demons" is the work of a man who believes the Church is vital (even if scarily imperfect).
These big fat bloody Gothic religious horror movies make Catholic icons and rituals mysterious and haunting and important. So I ask the protestors, when a film is pro-belief, what harm's a little insubordination - or a gouged-out eyeball?
David Edelstein also endorses:
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
Make Your Prediction
I'm looking forward to the movie.
Some time, I'm going to visit Rome and use 'Angels and Demons' as my tour guide. (Sorry, Rick Steves.) I want to see Bernini's 'Ecstasy of St. Theresa'.