Dud Vinci Code?

Peggy Noonan writes a two-part piece in today's Wall Street Journal. Part 1 excoriates the president for his immigration speech the other night. Needless to say, she didn't like it. You can read her take here.

Part two takes on The Da Vinci Code movie, and she thinks the panning the movie is getting from the critics is well deserved:

Speaking of the detachment of the elites, the second big news of the week--in some ways it may be bigger--is the apparent critical failure of "The DaVinci Code." After its first screening in Cannes, critics and observers called it tedious, painfully long, bloated, grim, so-so, a jumble, lifeless and talky.

There is a God. Or, as a sophisticated Christian pointed out yesterday, there is an Evil One, and this may be proof he was an uncredited co-producer. The devil loves the common, the stale. He can't use beauty; it undermines him. "Banality is his calling card."

I do not understand the thinking of a studio that would make, for the amusement of a nation 85% to 90% of whose people identify themselves as Christian, a major movie aimed at attacking the central tenets of that faith, and insulting as poor fools its gulled adherents. Why would Tom Hanks lend his prestige to such a film? Why would Ron Howard? They're both already rich and relevant. A desire to seem fresh and in the middle of a big national conversation? But they don't seem young, they seem immature and destructive. And ungracious. They've been given so much by their country and era, such rich rewards and adulation throughout their long careers. This was no way to say thanks.

I don't really understand why we live in an age in which we feel compelled to spoof the beliefs of the followers of the great religions. Why are we doing that? Why does Hollywood consider this progressive as opposed to primitive, like a pre-Columbian tribe attacking the tribe next door for worshiping the wrong spirits?

"The DaVinci Code" could still triumph at the box office, but it has lost its cachet, and the air of expectation that surrounded it. Its creators have not been rewarded but embarrassed. Good. They should be.

Here's my prediction for the movie: There will be a big opening weekend, but not as big as the experts expected. The early reviews will keep some folks home, but many will still fall for the pre-release hype and the overall popularity of the book. The movie will then suffer the fate of many films which have had bad word-of-mouth. There will be a dramatic fall-off in ticket sales after the initial weekend, and it will quickly fade from view with the Hollywood elites shaking their heads the all the "rubes out there in flyover country" who refused to shell out $10 to have their faith insulted.

If the lefty hyper-snobs at Cannes hated it, you can bet most of America won't think much of it either.

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