Based off of Dan Brown's block-buster novel, The DaVinci Code, starring Tom Hanks, was just recently released on DVD and gets this month's nod for Mystery Movie of the Month. Call it a funny irony since the storyline goes through great pains to put doubt into the divinity of Jesus, yet this month is the celebration of Christ's birth. As others have, I could write a book of my own on the subject, but that's not the point of this spotlight, so I won't go there.

The DaVinci Code is a code-cracking romp centered around the search and protection of "the Holy Grail." The four protectors of the Grail from the legendary secret society, the Priory of Sion, have been murdered, but the Grand Master, shot at the Louvre, leaves a coded message in his own blood for American symbologist Robert Langdon (Hanks). The French police, however, believe this to mean that Langdon is the murderer. Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), a cryptographer working for the police and granddaughter of the murdered, helps Langdon to escape. While being pursued, they work together, as well as enlist the help of Grail historian, Sir Leigh Teabing (Sir Ian McKellen), to discover they path they've been pointed down.

The book has much more detail than the movie, of course, but director Ron Howard did a good job of pacing the action and intermingling it with needed background information. Personally, I would have preferred a bit more focus on the code-breaking aspects of the story. After all, outside of the religious controversy, that's what made the book so popular. However, the exclusive of real footage from inside the Louvre makes up for some of this.

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