The Da Vinci Code (2006)
★★★½ — The Da Vinci Code (2006)
Some films entertain you and then you forget them by the time you've finished your popcorn. Others entertain you and then send you down a rabbit hole that lasts for months. The Da Vinci Code is firmly in the second camp, at least for me. I walked out of it wanting to read about the Council of Nicaea, the Gnostic gospels, the history of the Catholic Church, and whether anything I thought I knew about early Christianity was actually true. That's not nothing. That's a film doing something.
The central premise is bold: what if the version of Christian history we've inherited has been shaped, curated, even distorted by institutional power? What if key texts were suppressed, key figures marginalised, and the whole thing handed down to us through centuries of deliberate editing? The film never pretends to be a documentary, and it doesn't need to. It wears its speculation on its sleeve. But it presents these ideas with such confidence and pace that you find yourself leaning forward in your seat, genuinely gripped, even when you know you're being spun a yarn.
Tom Hanks plays Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist pulled into a murder investigation at the Louvre that quickly spirals into something far bigger. Hanks is perfectly cast here. He brings an everyman earnestness that keeps Langdon grounded even when the plot is asking you to accept quite a lot. Audrey Tautou is quietly compelling alongside him, and Sir Ian McKellen absolutely relishes his role as a historian with secrets of his own, bringing a theatrical warmth that lights up every scene he's in.
Ron Howard directs the whole thing with a steady, confident hand. He knows this material could easily tip into self-parody, so he plays it straight and lets the locations do a lot of the heavy lifting. The Louvre at night, the shadowy interiors of ancient churches, the sweeping grandeur of European architecture. It's gorgeous to look at, and Hans Zimmer's score runs underneath it all like a current, quiet and insistent and genuinely haunting in places.
Is it flawless? Not even close. There are stretches where the dialogue is basically two characters reciting Wikipedia at each other while pretending to have a conversation. Some of the logical leaps are generous, to put it kindly. And the pacing, while generally tight, does sag a little in the middle act when the exposition really piles up. You can feel the weight of the source novel at those moments, all that plot that needs carrying.
But here's the thing: even at its most lecture-y, it's never boring. The questions it's asking are genuinely interesting, and the film has the good sense to treat its audience as adults who can handle ambiguity and provocation. It doesn't wrap everything up neatly with a bow. It leaves you with something to chew on.
I'll be honest about the sequels though. I've sat through Angels & Demons (2009) and Inferno (2016), and neither of them captured whatever it is that makes this one work. They feel like the formula without the spark, the globe-trotting without the genuine sense of discovery. This one has that spark. Maybe it's because it was the first. Maybe it's because the central idea is genuinely provocative in a way the follow-ups couldn't match. Either way, the original stands on its own.
Three and a half stars. Gripping, thought-provoking, and far more rewatchable than its critics would have you believe. Just maybe have your phone handy, because you'll want to go looking things up afterwards. That's the best thing I can say about it.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2006 | Watched: 2025-10-03
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Sony Pictures Core Amazon Channel
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Starz Amazon Channel · Starz · Starz Apple TV channel · Starz Roku Premium Channel
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
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