Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard struck gold with author Dan Brown when The Da Vinci Code hit theaters in 2006. Ten years later, and one forgettable sequel in between (Angels and Demons), they reunite with the most compelling of the trilogy, Inferno.
One of the reasons why Inferno mostly works this time is that in many ways, they have wiped the slate clean — a terrific move for a series that is making its latest film a decade after its first. Hanks’ Robert Langdon awakes in a Florence, Italy hospital with amnesia. He has no idea who he is, how he got there and why there is a bullet-graze wound on his head. There to help him is Dr. Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones). Within moments of Langdon awaking, a “police officer” stoically storms down the hallway towards his room and as soon as she is within sight of the professor and his medical professional, she starts firing her gun.
And, we’re off…
Inferno is as much of a historically based, intellectual puzzle to figure out (like the two previous films, and Dan Brown’s books), but it is also a hard boiled mystery. It’s a who-done it. But, here it is more of a who will do it and the “it” is unleashing a virus that will wipe out a majority of the population in the name of saving the planet from the “cancer” that is the human race.
Somehow, Langdon is involved and as such, he’s wanted by the authorities and until he can figure out his role in this potboiler, he and Brooks traverse Europe to solve the puzzle before the world meets a horrible fate.
Hanks, as ever, is game for this. But, in many ways, he doesn’t have to try to hard to be Langdon and it’s a character that fits him like a glove, almost too well. Jones’ Brooks is an interesting soul, but her arc feels more like a stroke of convenience than one that pushes the drama. She is a child prodigy who has some of the same worldly fascinations as Langdon and the good doctor certainly helps our hero along his journey. It will be interesting to see more of what she can do in the upcoming Rogue One, given what we saw her do in her Oscar nominated turn in The Theory of Everything.
Howard’s work reminds us of Hanks’ in Inferno. He does his job and he does it quite well, but it is the type of work that the helmer could do in his sleep. That is not a slight against either artist. It is just a fact. There is nothing particularly challenging about what Inferno requires of the two.
The thing is, the third film in the Brown book series is a relatively high-brow piece of popcorn movie. It seems like a film that would be released in the summer, but in 2016 we get our blockbuster fare year-round — what with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Doctor Strange and more coming to theaters before the year is done. When most audiences see popcorn fare as overly simplistic, it is nice to see a thriller that requires a bit of thought as we explore the worlds of Dante, Florentine architectural history, modern global politics and even the biology and physiology of what it would take to wipe out a large portion of the world’s population.
One of the big selling points here is the locales. After seeing Inferno, it would be fantastic to see more films set in Florence. The city lives and breathes artistic brilliance; from inside and outside those gloriously designed and adorned buildings to the richly layered history that permeates life in the borough that gave birth to the Renaissance.
The thrilling conclusion in Istanbul provides us with another rich tapestry to have Howard, Hanks and Brown weave their web of intrigue’s big finale. The crescendo of this thrilling operetta is certainly as heart-stopping as the verbal imagery of Dante’s Inferno is haunting.
Grade: B