Dan Brown's new adaptation is as exciting and confusing as ever.
Inferno
Grade: B
Director: Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon)
Screenplay: David Koepp (Panic Room), based on Dan Brown novel.
Cast: Tom Hanks (Sully), Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 2 hr 1 min
by John DeSando
“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” Dante, Divine Comedy
Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is no Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), but then Hanks is no swashbuckling Ford either. Each one, a professor, gets extracurricular activity most of us would relish, given their tours of exotic locations.
In the exciting and complex Inferno, the third Dan Brown thriller set to film, Langdon has to fight amnesia and a global security firm, headed by a tyrannical dreamer, Harry Sims (Ben Foster), that threatens to wipe out half the world’s population in some kind of Malthusian madness. The conceit of ridding population to save it has a certain charm partly because it smacks of warped idealism rather than wealth. After all, birth control hasn’t worked all that well either.
As Langdon struggles to get his memory back, especially about the poet Dante, he is joined by Dr. Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), another comely youngster to accompany the aging professor. Dante’s death mask holds the key to unraveling this mystery, and his Inferno is a place to find clues.
The good thing is that Langdon has no romance with these young ones, leaving that part this time to an older woman Elizabeth (Sidse Babett Knudsen). Twists like that keep these cliché-ridden thrillers moving apace while we enjoy the splendors of Florence, Venice, and Istanbul.
Sit back and enjoy the frenetic story with director Ron Howard’s sure control of the shots and action and Hans Zimmer’s just-right mood music. You may not remember much about the somewhat intricate plot, but you will remember Hanks’ honest, perplexed, and caring face.
Besides, the Catholic Church is not the object of Brown’s satirical eye in Inferno; this time ineffectual world organizations take the brunt. I do miss his lampooning the Church, as a former Catholic boy who likes to see its secret power structure laid bare for fun.
“The greatest sins in human history were committed in the name of love. Robert Langdon
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
