Inferno

— I like Dan Brown’s symbol- and art-laden novels and I like Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, the Harvard scholar and main character who is always dodging bullets while racing to figure out the clues that can resolve some crisis before the bad guys beat him to it. All this from an academic? Sure enough. If you liked the previous two installments, you’ll probably like this one as well. Ron Howard does his usual, thoughtful and precise job and the film manages to stay mostly true to the novel except for a few fewer twists and a shift at the end. We’ve grown accustomed to lots of action and we get it, but we’re also served up nonstop and somewhat academic clues that make the film either interesting or boring depending on your sensibilities. I enjoyed it and the decision to adjust the final “chapter” reminded me how different films are from novels. Did I mention that the images themselves are really beautiful?

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[2016. 121 min. Directed by Ron Howard. Starring Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Irrfan Khan, and Omar Sy.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/inferno-2016