I say ‘Worth Consuming’ – but only because I know most people are going to go see it anyway! It’s a pop culture reference rather than a good film – but I’m kinda glad I saw it, so sure I’ll say yay over nay.

Upside: very dark atmosphere, a few good performances, faithful to the book, and some great locations. Oh, and being able to see the art that’s being described is a great help.

Downside: can I just say everything else?!

The story is daft, but I’m fine with that – it’s fiction, it’s entertaining. But I’m disappointed that the filmmakers went with such a direct retelling: remembering that most of the audience is likely to have read the book, the first third/half drags somewhat, and there’s rather too much exposition. Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou) exists solely to say “This is preposterous!” and have things explained to her, I think!

That said, the cast are mostly a relative strength. I’m still not convinced about Tom Hanks: while he wasn’t bad at all, I still sat there slightly irked that it was Tom Hanks! Ian McKellen was delightful, and Jean Reno is just cool. Paul Bettany, however, really did very little for me. Well, not true: he looks rather lush in the nuddy ;) But the character, or the portrayal – meh. He constantly looked like he was about to burst into tears. Perhaps not surprisingly given the brutality of the self-flagellation scenes :(

Worse, there’s no real sense of working things out: clues and solutions fall into their laps, help is always at hand – at least at the beginning. Fortunately things do pick up pace, and the fast-packed action of the latter scenes take your mind off some of the more ridiculous moments.

I can’t believe the book manages to be better than the film in this case, but it does. Just. Which is a shame, ‘cos I do think this could have been a tighter, darker piece. So many mysteries and clues – but switching your brain on for this film would be a big mistake. If you’ve read the book, you know what’s coming… and there isn’t much else to hold this film together.

Go see it, just so you know what people are talking about. But don’t expect to see a masterpiece.