Release of The Da Vinci Code, directed by Ron Howard, has been preceded by a lot of hype. The plot, which is based on Dan Brown's silly best seller, has prompted the Vatican to protest far too loudly. Scribbling on Leonardo's painting The Last Supper, detected with blacklights, leads the principals Professor Robert Langdon (played by Tom Hanks) and Sophie Neveu (played by Audrey Tautou) on a treasure hunt of sorts, similar to the film National Treasure (2004). Eventually, the big secret is revealed: Sophie, though unaware of her status until the events portrayed in the film, is the sole contemporary biological descendent of a marriage between Jesus of Nazareth and Mary Magdalene. The keepers of the "secret," including the conservative Opus Dei society, are portrayed as sinister characters, and the plot is preposterous, but cinematography of Paris and London is at least a redeeming aspect. MH
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