2006年NPR美国国家公共电台五月-Review: 'The Da Vinci Code'

Anchor: Dan Brown's best-selling novel "The Da Vinci Code" is second only to the "Harry¹ Potter" series as the best-selling novel of all time. And it has inspired a whole slew² of books on Biblical puzzles, Opus Dei, and the life of Mary Magdalene, as well as some debunking³ Brown's premise⁴. Now comes Director Ron Howard's long anticipated film, starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou. Film critic David Edelstein has a review.

David Edelstein: Columbia Pictures wouldn't let anyone see "The Da Vinci Code" until a couple of days ago, so there was nothing much for the media to report on expect the protests of Catholics and other Christian⁵ groups, but it turns out the real story is that the mega-budget movie is an embarrassing nonevent. Any Catholic leader who actually sits through it will probably tell the picketers to go home. I should mention that those leaders aren't paranoid. Dan Brown's best-selling novel really is an assault on the foundations of their faith. Brown isn't the only person to speculate on the political intentions behind the writing of the Gospels, but he ratchets up the stakes by spinning a counter-theory revolving⁶ around Mary Magdalene, and by making the Catholic Opus Dei sect⁷ a bastion of homicidal zealots determined⁸ to suppress the truth. Throwing car chases, a mutilated corpse⁹ in the Louvre, skulking¹⁰ bishops¹¹, a mysterious criminal mastermind, a self-flagellating killer¹² albino and cryptogrammatic clues hidden in masterpieces of western art, and you've got yourself a publishing phenomenon that even a lot of church-goers couldn't resist.

David Edelstein: The director Ron Howard, and the screen writer Akiva Goldsman have made little of all this. The movie is divinely uninspired. It's a shaggy Grail story without a whisper of passion, not even the passion for intellectual gamesmanship that buttressed¹³ all the sentimental¹⁴ glop in their best-known collaboration¹⁵, "A Beautiful Mind". What keeps you turning pages in the novel is the mixture of Hitchcock and Will Shortz. A man wrongfully accused of murder, hurtling from place to place, while madly solving the puzzles left by the dead guy. But Howard and Goldsman have come up with a deadly blend, a movie both really slow and impossible to follow, I feel a little sorry for Tom Hanks, who plays the wrongfully accused puzzle solver, the famed Harvard symbologist, Robert Langdon. The Da Vinci Code was obviously a money job for him, and the money was obviously great, but it has to be rough on a smart actor when there was nothing to play, no subtext, no strong objective, and no one much to play against.

David Edelstein: His co-star is Audrey Tautou, miscast as a French cryptologist and the granddaughter of the dead Louvre curator. As an actress, she seems bred for airy enchantment¹⁶, not earthy gumption¹⁷. And her very approximate English diction turns even rudimentary dialogue into a linguistic¹⁸ adventure. Here, she and Hanks contemplate¹⁹ something pulled from a safe deposit box called a cryptex.

~~~ Film Clip ~~~

Sophie Neveu: Cryptex, they are used to keep secrets. It's Da Vinci's design, you write the information on a papyrus²⁰ scroll²¹ which is then rolled around a thin glass vial of vinegar. If you force it open, the vial breaks, vinegar dissolves papyrus and your secret is lost forever. The only way to access the information's to spell out the password with these 5 dials, each with 26 letters, that's 12 million possibilities.

Robert Langdon: I've never met a girl who knew that much about cryptex.

Sophie Neveu: Sauniere made one for me once.

Robert Langdon: My grandfather gave me a wagon²².

~~~ Film Clip ~~~

David Edelstein: While she describes the cryptex, we see the interior workings of it. It's like an insert in CSI, and I normally find scenes like that hard to resist. But Ron Howard can't manage to generate any momentum²³ or suspense²⁴, and Goldsman does such a poor job of storytelling that the subversive²⁵ goddess worship doesn't have any impact either. The only diversions in the movie are Sir Ian McKellen's scenery chewing, and the miscast but game Paul Bettany doing his best to embody²⁶ religious dementia as the Opus Dei albino.

David Edelstein: If there's anything to be learnt from this dud, it's that when you adapt an explosive property like "The Da Vinci Code", playing it safe isn't safe, either swallow hard and make the damnable thing or give it to someone with more guts²⁷ andor less to lose. Here is a saga²⁸ that strikes at the heart of western religion, and it plays like there is absolutely nothing at stake.

Anchor: David Edelstein is film...

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Words in NPR
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be second only to: used to emphasize that something is nearly the largest, most important etc; 次于...
nonevent: an event that is disappointing because it is much less interesting, exciting, or important than you expected; 大肆宣扬即将来临而结果未发生之事
papyrus scroll: 古本手卷

1 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

2 slew   

v.（使）旋转；n.大量，许多

参考例句：

• He slewed the car against the side of the building.他的车滑到了大楼的一侧，抵住了。
• They dealt with a slew of other issues.他们处理了大量的其他问题。

3 debunking   

v.揭穿真相，暴露( debunk的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The debunking of religion has been too successful. 对于宗教的揭露太成功了。 来自互联网

4 premise   

n.前提；v.提论，预述

参考例句：

• Let me premise my argument with a bit of history.让我引述一些史实作为我立论的前提。
• We can deduce a conclusion from the premise.我们可以从这个前提推出结论。

5 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

6 revolving   

adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想

参考例句：

• The theatre has a revolving stage. 剧院有一个旋转舞台。
• The company became a revolving-door workplace. 这家公司成了工作的中转站。

7 sect   

n.派别，宗教，学派，派系

参考例句：

• When he was sixteen he joined a religious sect.他16岁的时候加入了一个宗教教派。
• Each religious sect in the town had its own church.该城每一个宗教教派都有自己的教堂。

8 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

9 corpse   

n.尸体，死尸

参考例句：

• What she saw was just an unfeeling corpse.她见到的只是一具全无感觉的尸体。
• The corpse was preserved from decay by embalming.尸体用香料涂抹以防腐烂。

10 skulking   

v.潜伏，偷偷摸摸地走动，鬼鬼祟祟地活动( skulk的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• There was someone skulking behind the bushes. 有人藏在灌木后面。
• There were half a dozen foxes skulking in the undergrowth. 在林下灌丛中潜伏着五六只狐狸。 来自辞典例句

11 bishops   

（基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象

参考例句：

• Each player has two bishops at the start of the game. 棋赛开始时，每名棋手有两只象。
• "Only sheriffs and bishops and rich people and kings, and such like. “他劫富济贫，抢的都是郡长、主教、国王之类的富人。

12 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

13 buttressed   

v.用扶壁支撑，加固( buttress的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The court buttressed its decision. 法院支持自己的判决。 来自辞典例句
• The emotional appeal was buttressed with solid and specific policy details. 情感的感召有坚实的和详细的政策细节支持。 来自互联网

14 sentimental   

adj.多愁善感的，感伤的

参考例句：

• She's a sentimental woman who believes marriage comes by destiny.她是多愁善感的人，她相信姻缘命中注定。
• We were deeply touched by the sentimental movie.我们深深被那感伤的电影所感动。

15 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

16 enchantment   

n.迷惑，妖术，魅力

参考例句：

• The beauty of the scene filled us with enchantment.风景的秀丽令我们陶醉。
• The countryside lay as under some dread enchantment.乡村好像躺在某种可怖的魔法之下。

17 gumption   

n.才干

参考例句：

• With his gumption he will make a success of himself.凭他的才干，他将大有作为。
• Surely anyone with marketing gumption should be able to sell good books at any time of year.无疑，有经营头脑的人在一年的任何时节都应该能够卖掉好书。

18 linguistic   

adj.语言的，语言学的

参考例句：

• She is pursuing her linguistic researches.她在从事语言学的研究。
• The ability to write is a supreme test of linguistic competence.写作能力是对语言能力的最高形式的测试。

19 contemplate   

vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视

参考例句：

• The possibility of war is too horrifying to contemplate.战争的可能性太可怕了，真不堪细想。
• The consequences would be too ghastly to contemplate.后果不堪设想。

20 papyrus   

n.古以纸草制成之纸

参考例句：

• The Egyptians wrote on papyrus.埃及人书写用薄草纸。
• Since papyrus dries up and crumble,very few documents of ancient Egypt have survived.因草片会干裂成粉末所以古埃及的文件很少保存下来。

21 scroll   

n.卷轴，纸卷；(石刻上的)漩涡

参考例句：

• As I opened the scroll,a panorama of the Yellow River unfolded.我打开卷轴时，黄河的景象展现在眼前。
• He was presented with a scroll commemorating his achievements.他被授予一幅卷轴，以表彰其所做出的成就。

22 wagon   

n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车

参考例句：

• We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
• The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。

23 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。

24 suspense   

n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑

参考例句：

• The suspense was unbearable.这样提心吊胆的状况实在叫人受不了。
• The director used ingenious devices to keep the audience in suspense.导演用巧妙手法引起观众的悬念。

25 subversive   

adj.颠覆性的，破坏性的；n.破坏份子，危险份子

参考例句：

• She was seen as a potentially subversive within the party.她被看成党内潜在的颠覆分子。
• The police is investigating subversive group in the student organization.警方正调查学生组织中的搞颠覆阴谋的集团。

26 embody   

vt.具体表达，使具体化；包含，收录

参考例句：

• The latest locomotives embody many new features. 这些最新的机车具有许多新的特色。
• Hemingway's characters plainly embody his own values and view of life.海明威笔下的角色明确反映出他自己的价值观与人生观。

27 guts   

v.狼吞虎咽，贪婪地吃，飞碟游戏（比赛双方每组5人，相距15码，互相掷接飞碟）；毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的第三人称单数 )；取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 )；内脏；消化道的下段；肠

参考例句：

• I'll only cook fish if the guts have been removed. 鱼若已收拾干净，我只需烧一下即可。
• Barbara hasn't got the guts to leave her mother. 巴巴拉没有勇气离开她妈妈。 来自《简明英汉词典》

28 saga   

n.(尤指中世纪北欧海盗的)故事，英雄传奇

参考例句：

• The saga of Flight 19 is probably the most repeated story about the Bermuda Triangle.飞行19中队的传说或许是有关百慕大三角最重复的故事。
• The novel depicts the saga of a family.小说描绘了一个家族的传奇故事。