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The Current Cinema
'Angels & Demons' lacks wings, and its cloven foot is leaden
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"Angels & Demons," the latest in the film franchise based on books by Dan Brown, marks an improvement over the 2006 release "The DaVinci Code." But it still leaves a lot to be desired. At this rate, Ron Howard, who directed both movies, might manage a great film version of Brown's religious pulp by the end of the Mayan calendar — or not.
Tom Hanks reprises his role as Professor Langdon, the world's foremost authority on the arcane aspects of the history of the Roman Catholic Church and its secular empire, the Vatican. Langdon's conceit is that he considers himself a modern day Sherlock Holmes, without the white powder favored by the latter but with the same gimlet eye and tendency toward hubris.
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| Hanks's avuncular academic careens through Rome, commandeers carabinieri and cracks clues with enough alacrity to consternate a
trivia king. |
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When we first see Langdon in "Angels & Demons," he is swimming laps in a private pool. Interrupted by a visitor, and having discerned the symbol of the Vatican on the man's briefcase, Langdon suggests the interloper might cure his obvious jet lag with a relaxing swim. Alas, it turns out this Vatican emissary — a cop by trade — had been dispatched from no further than the United Nations in New York. Perhaps Officer Vincenzi owes the circles under his eyes to the wearying gravity of his career rather than to the vapor trail travails of the jetsetting message boy Langdon incorrectly pegs him for.
Similarly, when we are introduced to Vittoria (Ayelet Zurer), the attractive physicist who will become Langdon's science sidekick on this adventure, flashes of ego-driven ambition harden her classic features. Vittoria will soften as events evoke her compassion, whereas Langdon, despite his heroism, never fully relinquishes his superiority.
The pair are thrown together in what quickly becomes a sick tour of Rome's churches in an effort to save hostages and foil a plot to blow up the Vatican. Although most of the action is set in the Eternal City and highlights some of its most popular tourist attractions, from St. Peter's Cathedral and a brief and shadowy view of that most famous chapel ceiling, to the pantheon, Piazza Navona and Castel Sant'Angelo, the cinematography remains largely uninspiring, except for brief flashes: bawling nuns, Cardinals puffing on cigarettes and architectural details. When Langdon lectures his Vatican hosts on the serial emasculating of many church sculptures by an earlier pope, he is suspected of being anti-Catholic, whereas he is merely parading his erudition. Still, that reaction on the part of the loyal churchmen reinforces the academic's disdain for the blind faith of true believers.
We trust no sculptures were harmed during the making of this film.
The action is set in the modern day interregnum between the death of a pope and the election of his successor. The plan to destroy the church would use a brand new scientific discovery to blow Rome to smithereens. Enter anti-matter. No sooner created by international physicists in neighboring Switzerland, than it is taken on the road by the bad guy.
Real science is not there yet, a BNL physicist has assured me, but if those white smocks ever isolate enough anti-matter to blow up a world capital, here is a suggestion: Don't make a handy, portable, see-through thermos for the darn stuff.
The special effects used to illustrate the creation of anti-matter and its inevitable destruction, smack of leftovers from the infinity sequence of "2001: A Space Odyssey" — muted and tedious psychedelia.
Kudos to Hanks who fills the bill in "Angels & Demons" as an avuncular academic, who careens through Rome, commandeers carabinieri and cracks clues with enough alacrity to consternate a trivia king. En route, a stylish Vittoria lets her humanity show, perhaps motivated by the knowledge that it is her scientific work, hijacked for evil purposes, which has put so many innocents at risk. Along the way, Langdon, bespattered with blood and shot at, witnesses horrific violence and literally unbelievable deceit. Yet he never finds God in any of the foxhole situations his quest plunges him into.
Langdon is, to the end, wary of Cardinals bearing gifts. Or maybe he is simply following a piece of good advice given him by an assassin: "Be careful; these are men of God."
"Angels & Demons," with good supporting acting by Ewan McGregor, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Stellan Skarsgård, lacks punch, despite its late-inning plot twists. For all its pretentious church v. science rhetoric, there is little here that makes a lasting impression. And a final scene of violence is both gratuitous and redundant, and perhaps worse, not even visually interesting. For more movie reviews search for 'current cinema' on our website.
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