Da Vinci Code Decoded

Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code is a book that has caused a sensation the world over with its claims on the origin of Christianity and its connection to secret societies and cover-ups that span the last 2000 years. It's sold millions of copies and has catapulted religious and historical debate into everyday conversations across the western world - and Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou are set to star in the film!

The Da Vinci Code Decoded is a documentary that attempts to answer many of the questions in Brown's book from his original sources: authors and historians who have become experts on the study of religious groups, theory and archaeology.

Under a series of subject titles, the film moves through the numerous theories made popular by the book, attempting to answer questions like: "Were Jesus and Mary Magdalene really married?", "What was Da Vinci really trying to tell us in his paintings?" and "Did Constantine really 'edit' the Bible?"

While the film features many different experts providing their theories and historical facts for some of the topics in The Code, one should not expect that anyone can actually give a definitive answer to speculations on events that took place more than a thousand years ago. What the film does attempt to do is shed light on some of the presumptions one can make from the book and illustrate whether or not everything he claims at the beginning of the story is actually true.

Although some chapters of the documentary are very thorough, such as explanations surrounding Da Vinci's artistic motivations and the real and possible relationship between Jesus and Mary, more coverage on the origins of the Old and New Testaments would have been useful, and the Knights Templar/Priory of Scion coverage was thin and unsatisfactory.

There is a good selection of experts to chose from, though it does have a tendency from time to time to come across as a bit of a commercial for Martin Lunn's book of the same name as a definitive authority on the facts behind the fiction (which unfortunately it's not). Watching this cannot help but be informative for anyone wanting to explore The Da Vinci Code's claims further, but as this film demonstrates, trying to get all the answers into a couple of hours is a challenge and one that is not entirely accomplished here.