What do you get when you add Tom Hanks, a young brunette, a historical conspiracy and a supposed-to-be-shocking twist? Any of the three Dan Brown book-to-movie adaptations. The latest of these, “Inferno,” is almost interesting at best and terribly redundant at worst.
What happens
Hanks is back as Harvard professor Robert Langdon, who wakes up with a concussion in Florence, Italy, with no recollection of the previous 48 hours. After an assassin attempts to kill him, Langdon and his doctor Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones) go on—you guessed it—a historical scavenger hunt that only makes sense if you don’t think about it too hard. The two chase down a virus created by a billionaire geneticist and designed to wipe out a portion of humans on Earth to solve the “overpopulation crisis.”
What’s good
It is exciting to see the pieces of the puzzle come together even if the conclusion doesn’t exactly have you on the edge of your seat. It was interesting to see Hanks’ character, known for always having the answer for everything, suddenly seem so vulnerable and clueless, though that doesn’t last long. Hanks and Jones mesh well despite awkward jokes about dating that befall any male/female onscreen duo (which isn’t a concern because, spoiler, they’re both in love with other people).
What’s bad
As is the case when any Dan Brown novel comes to life on screen, the film lacks any and all nuance that Brown managed to include in his novel. Characters lack depth and are either categorically good or bad without any wiggle room at all and no exploration of their motivations (save for some moments when Langdon or Brooks attempts to wax poetic about love). Some are even robbed of entire plot points for the sake of streamlining the film, which not only makes for a fairly boring experience but also is insulting to the audience. Instead of allowing viewers the opportunity to form their own opinions about the argument at hand, director Ron Howard beats you over the head with the belief that Langdon is the moral compass of all humanity and whatever he says with conviction must be taken as the word of God.
The verdict
If you like historical conspiracies, Tom Hanks or learning obscure details about Dante, check it out. Even if you don’t like it, you’ll probably pay more attention to it than any history lecture you skipped in college.
2 stars (out of four)
@shelbielbostedt | sbostedt@redeyechicago.com
