Mona Lisa Smile

A Vatican official condemns the upcoming film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code in no uncertain terms. I can understand why people of faith would find fault with a movie based on a book built around the ludicrous idea that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and had a child with her. However, I worry that critics of the upcoming movie might be "feeding the monster" a little bit, by stimulating so much curiosity about the flick that a large amount of moviegoers will be interested in seeing it.

In its own way, Brokeback Mountain also mocked deeply held religious beliefs, by subtly attacking societal opposition to same-sex relationships and, by implication, the religious entities who believe that gay and lesbian relationships should not be accorded equal status with heterosexual relationships. However, as the New York Times pointed out several months ago, there was never any organized religious boycott of Mountain in the US, largely because religious groups feared that such a boycott would "feed the monster" and encourage people to see the Best Picture contender. I worry that religious entities opposed to the Code movie will end up doing the same thing that the atheists and "secular progressives" did with The Passion of the Christ, that is, actually promote the film via staunch condemnation.

Some religious entities may conclude that moviegoers may be tempted to see the film anyway because it stars Tom Hanks and was directed by Ron Howard. However, the involvement of Hanks and Howard does not guarantee box-office success: Hanks is no longer Mr. Untouchable at the box office, having made such recent flops as The Terminal and The Ladykillers, while Howard hasn't had a hit since A Beautiful Mind. Even though the source material was a bestseller, Code is far from a sure-fire hit. After all, back in 1990, Hanks starred in the film version of Tom Wolfe's chart-topper The Bonfire of the Vanities; the film was critically reviled upon its December release, and was out of the theatres by mid-January 1991.

Code might suffer a similar fate--that is, if intense religious protests don't spark curiosity.