Inferno
Film
Review
by Kam Williams
Hanks
and Howard Collaborate on Another Adaptation of a Dan Brown Best
Seller
Dan
Brown is the author of a quartet of best-selling mysteries featuring
Harvard Professor Robert Langdon as the protagonist. The
phenomenally-popular novels have sold over 100 million copies and
counting, with the fifth in the series slated to be released in the
fall of 2017.
Screen
versions of the first two Robert Langdon books, The Da Vinci Code
(2006) and Angels & Demons (2009), netted over a billion dollars
at the box office. So, it's no surprise that another adaptation might
be in order.
Inferno
reunites director Ron Howard with Tom Hanks who reprises his lead
role as a genius with an uncanny knack for deciphering ancient
symbols and religious iconography. And Howard enlisted the assistance
of a stellar support cast which includes Ben Foster, Felicity Jones,
Irrfan Khan and Omar Sy.
Inferno
is easily the most successful of the offerings, as it reins in
Langdon's earlier tendency to overindulgence in inscrutable jargon.
This go round, the intellectual badinage has been minimized to make
way for a flurry of visually-captivating action sequences.
Another
plus is the easy to follow plotline. The point of departure is a
hospital in Florence, Italy which is where we find Langdon suffering
from amnesia yet lucky to be alive given how a bullet to the head
only grazed his scalp.
Before
we even have a chance to blink, a gun-toting assassin (Ana Ularu)
arrives to finish the job. Fortunately, Langdon's gorgeous doctor,
Sienna Brooks (Jones), not only helps him escape on the spot, but is
prepared to abandon her practice to go on the run with her
traumatized patient.
As
it turns out, the hit woman was part of a much larger conspiracy.
For, she was merely doing the bidding of Bertrand Zobrist (Foster),
an evil billionaire on the verge of hatching a disturbing solution
for the world's overpopulation problem. Essentially, the madman's
plan is to unleash a lethal virus designed to kill half the people on
the planet in less than a week.
That
sets the stage for Langdon and Sienna's dizzying race against time to
unearth a cornucopia of clues enabling them to track down and disarm
the diabolical Zobrist. That in a nutshell is the sum and substance
of Inferno, except for a humdinger of a twist it would be unfair to
spoil.
Easily,
the most accessible, engaging, entertaining and cinematic adaptation
of a Dan Brown thriller yet!
Very Good (3 stars)
Rated PG-13 for action, violence, profanity, disturbing images, mature themes and brief sensuality
In English, French
and Italian with subtitles
Running time: 126 minutesDistributor: Sony Pictures
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