Oct 28, 2016
There are few films in the past decade or two that stirred up as much controversy among Catholics as "The Da Vinci Code." That 2006 film, based on a best-selling book by Dan Brown, starred Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, a professor of religious iconography and symbology from Harvard University, who was engaged in a race to find the legendary Holy Grail.
The "DaVinci Code" turned controversial because it posited that Mary Magdalene was the bride of Christ and bore him children who carried on a line of descendants into the present day, an idea that is, of course, blasphemous to Christian belief. Meanwhile, its follow-up film, 2009's "Angels & Demons," had Langdon racing against time to solve a murder and prevent a terrorist act against the Vatican.
That film was a fun lark as the professor solved one improbable clue after another to save the day, and even the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano gave it its seal of approval as entertainment, after having condemned "The DaVinci Code."
Now, the third film in the series is out this weekend, called "Inferno," and it's both the best and and least contentious one yet for Catholics. This time, there's no controversial elements about our faith, and when the film does focus on Dante's "Inferno" and a painting by Botticelli that it inspired of Hell, it takes the subject in a horrifyingly serious way and doesn't mock it or contradict Hell in any way.
This time the stakes are raised to involve a threat far beyond solving a religious mystery or a terror threat against a religious institution to encompass an existential threat to the planet. The film opens with the sudden suicide of Bertrand Zobrist (Ben Foster), a billionaire scientist who rails against the threat of overpopulation and secretly has planned to release a deadly virus called "Inferno" that could wipe out half the planet's human populace within days.
Cut to Langdon awakening in a hospital room in Florence, Italy, utterly disoriented and unable to process even the slightest sound without having an agonizing headache. He's lost all memory of the previous 48 hours, and his mind is filled with horrific visions of a river of blood, people writhing in agony, and demons everywhere. Just as he starts talking to his doctor, Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), and tries to figure out what's going on, a female dressed as a police officer comes barreling down the hallway like a Terminator, with guns blazing and the doctor forces Langdon to go on the run.
Langdon discovers a device called a "Faraday pointer," which is a miniature image projector, in his pockets and finds that it projects an altered version of Sandro Botticelli's painting "Map of Hell," which is based on Dante's "Inferno." They soon realize this is the first clue in a trail left by Zobrist to locate where the virus is stored, and that they are being chased by both legitimate and rogue World Health Organization agents, as well as Italian police, with all the competing forces attempting to get their hands on the virus, either to destroy it or release it.
The result is an almost non-stop race across Florence and the rest of Italy, combining breakneck action with historic locations and impromptu lessons in art history to create a popcorn thriller that makes audiences feel smart as well as entertained. Hanks is in fine form and having a blast dishing out arcane information about religious codes and symbols at the same time he's running for his life or engaged in dangerous escapes from a slew of people who want him to give up his information and then wish him dead.
Jones, a British actress who had her American breakthrough with an Oscar-nominated turn as Stephen Hawking's wife in 2014's "The Theory of Everything," proves to be a fun sidekick to Langdon and brings welcome depth at a key moment in the film.
The film has very limited foul language, and most of the action is standard-level violence with no blood shown from shootings or one character's deadly, steep fall. However, there are several very intense hallucination sequences in which Langdon sees demons, people writhing in pain and a giant river of blood – and comes to realize they are rooted in depictions of Hell, as seen in a Botticelli painting inspired by Dante's "Inferno." There are also a couple of quick flashes of grim medieval battle footage.
The fact that these depictions of Hell are neither contradicted nor mocked is impressive, as this is a rare Hollywood movie to show it in a truly horrific light. The movie is also a refreshing change of pace from its predecessors, as it does not mock Christianity or Catholicism at all.
There is also a brief scene implying sex, but the characters are seen fully clothed through the camera angle chosen.
Director Ron Howard returns after helming the first two films in the series, not only acing both the action and the smart stuff, but employing a diverse cast of distinctive-looking actors whose faces alone make viewers wonder who's a hero or villain – a touch that adds to the fun throughout.
Tie it all together and this is mindless fun that still makes viewers feel kind of smart since it takes them through some of the world's greatest arts institutions and teaches them about art in a way that will entertain and excite them, rather than bore them to tears in the vein of a college lecture. "Inferno" should prove popular enough to heat up the box office for a few weeks to come.