American professor of symbology, and the author of a best selling book on the Sacred Feminine, Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is giving a lecture in Paris. That evening he is called to the Louvre Museum to help solve the murder of its world-famous curator, who left behind a mysterious trail of clues and symbols, some are written in his own blood. What Langdon does not know is that inspector Fache (Jean Reno of "The Pink Panther") has him pegged as the key suspect in the murder.

Police cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou of "Amelie" and "Dirty Pretty Things"), the granddaughter of the murder victim, has reason to believe that the clues were left for her as well as Langdon. Sophie’s estranged grandfather has been leaving her puzzles to solve and anagrams to unscramble since she was a young girl. Because of that, she convinces Langdon to escape with her on a quest to solve this grand illusion. Soon they find secrets and codes hidden in various works by Leonardo Da Vinci that lead to a covert society, the Priory of Sion, which myth indicates guards the Holy Grail.

This film, adapted from Dan Brown’s famous (or infamous) book depending on your point of view, a mix of fact and fiction, has created a controversy. We will leave it to those who are interested to sort out the fact from the fiction and from their faith. At issue is the fictional story about Christ that many are treating as if it were presented as fact. As in "The Last Temptation of Christ," "The Da Vinci Code" alleges that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, and further, that Mary was pregnant with the child of Jesus and that the bloodline continues to this day. With respect to this speculation, the same information presented in the film tends to be less convincing than in the book.

For someone who has not read the book, the film may come across as complex and at times puzzling. Though the personal and ancient histories of the individuals and the secret societies involved is artfully mastered, thanks to Ron Howard as director.

Though some will disagree, this is one of those instances where it might have been a better movie if it had been longer. And make no mistake about this movie, it’s about making money and not trying to reinforce on the screen what was in this best selling book. The agenda here is financial and not religious.

Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou were effective in their roles, but we never got as engaged in their characters as we expected. The most interesting characters were the ones with misguided religious beliefs, such as Bishop Aringaraosa (Alfred Molina of "Spider Man 2") and Silas (Paul Bettany of "Firewall"). The most outstanding performance was by Ian Mckellen ("X Men: The Last Stand"), in a role that covered much more than one would expect.

A huge surprise for us was that the ending of the movie is actually better than the book! Fine acting, lots of action, a strong plot and exciting locales, make this a must see movie.