"I ache in the places I used to play." - Leonard Cohen
Dan Brown gets it wrong. Sophie is not the only living descendant of Jesus and Mary the Magdalene; Maudlin Mary; Madeleine; Mary of Magdala. These folks are more wily than Brown or Ron Howard portray. Audrey Toutou was excellently casted though.
It's nice to live at a time where one can say such things and not be locked up or worse. Sadly though, there will be people who will manifest their inner Silas, and take their protest beyond the verbal plane, where more polite people work out differences. Some may be Catholic, but I suspect more will come from the wacky wing of Protestantism. Probably not Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Unitarians, Lutherans and the more cerebral cults.
It's nice to live at a time where one can call these venerable institutions "cults", without fear of beheading, or being marched into the town square in your underwear.
But about the movie...
The book and the movie touch upon matters that are far deeper than can be conveyed in such a short form. I was have wished that Brown would have used Laurence Gardner's "Bloodline of the Holy Grail", which is rich in genealogies, and casts a far wider and deeper net than "Holy Blood, Holy Grail".
I would rather have seen the evolution of the bloodline as it passes through the fascinating lines throughout history. Alas, harder the do product placement. Must keep it present.
But the movie actually does provide flashes back the Crusades, Templars, the early days of the Priory of Sion, and such, and yet, genealogically, there are only about three points of focus: Jesus (then), Sophie (now), and Isaac Newton (in between). And yet Isaac is not shown to be in the line, but rather in the line of protectors of the line; the Rose Line. Roslyn. As head of the Priory of Sion...it was his job.
Regardless of what one thinks of the subject of the movie, one will come away from the experience with some great scenes from Paris, The Louvre, Roslyn Chapel and other intriguing places on the globe. One also gets to look at the lovely new Audrey, whom some will hate just because she is French, and will doubly hate because a French person is depicted as being related to Jesus. There is a roving bigotry in America that lights upon, or rather darkens, in strangely expedient ways. Another story.
For Christianity to keep from devolving into mere Churchianity, it needs to seek out and not shy away from more and more information, knowledge, wisdom. And should it be found that whoops! Jesus had kids, and some are among us today...I should think that their thoughts on the matter might be of at least a passing interest. I think it makes the story more human, and thus easier to relate to. I guess the notion that a hominid could evolve into a more divine being, since it involves evolution, is, anathema.
Were the Essenes descendants of Jesus? Was King Arthur? Robert the Bruce? Seems to me that one would wish that there were indeed descendants, as it could only enrich the world. As such, I see the movie as ultimately hopeful.
in progress...
