The 'Not-So-Critical' Critic:
on INFERNO
(2016, 121 minutes, PG-13)
The Quick of It -
The story continues for our great puzzle solver, Robert
Langdon. Based on the book written by
Dan Brown, Langdon finds himself in an Italian hospital with amnesia. Under immediate fire and on the run, he is
joined by Dr. Sienna Brooks to discover how he ended up in the hospital, which
then leads to a much greater mystery, one that threatens the world.
I will say Dan Brown knows how to research the ‘hell’ out of his ideas
(sorry, a pun since this story revolves around Dante) but I have never been a
fan of his writing style. I remember
when everyone was hyping his books when THE DA VINCI CODE movie was released. During that time, I was trapped in Walmart
having a tire put on my truck and was needing to kill some time. I just happened to be walking down their
book isle and saw the ‘Code’ on a shelf.
I proceeded to spend the next 30 minutes reading the first chapters, and
was not pleasantly surprised. His
chapters were short and choppy. The
writing had no natural flow and I just couldn’t get into the setting. This is not to say he is not a good author,
just that we will never have a nightstand relationship. The man does know how to research and build
a story. I will not take that away from
him but it is not enough to keep me entertained. The movies, though…
Tom Hanks returns as Langdon, and has his typical performance. Nothing to be ashamed of but not a prize
role. Felicity Jones (of THE THEORY OF
EVERYTHING and THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN) was the leading lady and does well
enough, but I am more excited to see what she does in ROGUE ONE. Irrfan Khan plays a ‘special’ contractor who
handles ‘special’ (wink-wink) projects for the rich and powerful. His was an exciting role but falters at the
end… somehow undergoes a brain hemorrhage in his earlier implied
capabilities.
Director Ron Howard does know who to tell a good story visually,
making up for Brown. Howard’s past
projects include IN THE HEART OF THE SEA, RUSH, CINDERELLA MAN, APOLLO 13, FAR
AND AWAY, BACKDRAFT, WILLOW, and A BEAUTIFLU MIND. If you haven’t caught on to what I am indirectly pointing out, he
is able to move across genres and has an extraordinary filmography. I believe he has done more for the film
industry in storytelling than even Spielberg.
Yeah, you heard me right. This
story adds to a great run of beautifully crafted films.
What Howard does in this film is a step beyond. He takes those fragmented memories floating
around in Langdon’s brain and brings them to life. He takes pieces of art and makes them real, putting real past
situations and warping them into visceral scenes, creating moving depictions of
the artworks as you would believe the artists intended. He breathed life into a still canvas. This includes Dante’s work, so much of it
was twisted and dark, just how I like.
You get a sense of how Dante saw hell and you lived in Langdon’s hell, a
prized memory now corrupted.
The one thing that makes this a Brown story but bothered me was how
everyone seems to be a puzzle, to be revealed through the story. Near about everyone. I think my problem with this is that a key
aspect to writing was not respected. If
the viewpoint was from Langdon, proven to be an untrustworthy observer, sure. But when you go through other characters’
perspectives, now everyone is to not be trusted, and you lose sense of the film
and trust nothing. This is not
recommended and frowned upon in most writings and leaves the reader feeling
slighted.
INFERNO will probably not be high on your must watch list, and that
is okay. Just make time to see it when
you can, Howard makes this film worthy.
Grade: B
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