Angels and Demons was written before The Da Vinci Code and has been altered slightly to follow it as film sequel. It’s an unusual gambit, but as it turns out, the second Dan Brown result is stronger and more entertaining than the original blockbuster. While Angels and Demons isn’t a great film, it is a good one. It moves at breakneck pace and manages to intrigue and enlighten with a labyrinthine plot set in an equally impermeable milieu of Roman Catholic rite, laws and traditions.
Certainly much of story may be mumbo jumbo, but there is much to be learned. The use of smoke signals from the Papal conclave to indicate progress in choosing a new Pope is a recognisable detail, one we’ve seen recently on CNN.
This is just a film and was never meant to be a guidebook to Roman Catholicism or in Vatican operations. It’s an adventure, thriller, murder mystery set in a world largely unknown to us and shrouded in mystery, but key to worldwide faith. We extend the film the ultimate suspension of disbelief. It's a great story and should give Brown's 2000 novel a big boost.
Tom Hanks’ significant charm and everyman accessibility is key to the story. His character Robert Langdon is breezy, confident and positive, and knows how to win friends and influence people even after decades locked in the highest towers of Ivy League universities. I would think much of that comes from Hanks’ personality – he delivers a deluge of intricate facts, arguments and common sense theories in ways that audiences will easily understand. He’s as likeable as Cary Grant and as solid in the face of danger. Graceful actors like these don’t come along too often.
Langdon is called to Rome to investigate a plot to murder four Preferiti, priests under consideration to replace the recently deceased Pope. A scientist has been murdered in a secure facility in Geneva, where anti-matter is produced; his chest is branded with a symbol of the Illuminati, a mysterious Catholic splinter group that murdered its way to power and was driven underground 400 years earlier. A tiny amount of highly volatile substance is missing, enough to destroy a city – like the Vatican. The good guys have just 24 hours to stop them and save the priests – and save the faith.
Despite the breakneck pace, we’re given intriguing glimpses into the political / social world of Vatican priests, and the scientific, police and academic communities. One of the most interesting groups is the Pontifical Swiss Guard the bodyguards protecting the Pope within the Vatican for five centuries.
The film is dense, jammed with information to be untangled by Langdon in his search for the Illuminati. It’s secret, off limits and hostile territory. The Vatican comes a close second. When Langdon’s investigative efforts to save the church are thwarted, he calmly reminds them ‘Hey, guys, you called me!’
Intense drama, compressed time and a visually arresting backdrop make this a yummy, shallow and gorgeous confection. Script holes, impossibilities and flaws be damned; it’s a ride and doesn’t pretend to be more. The pace is terrific and 138 minutes pass swiftly.
Angels and Demons
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