Even though this definitely is one of Brown’s weakest novels, Inferno seems to translate remarkably well on the big screen. It’s a rare case when the screen adaptation is better than the written work, so it comes as a pleasant surprise.
It might be due to the acting – Tom Hanks is wonderful and I couldn’t possibly imagine another Robert Langdon. There were numerous scenes where Langdon is physically unwell and they were portrayed in such a way that almost made me feel the same symptoms. A sign of how invested I was in the main character – I wasn’t simply viewing it from afar, I cared for him – and this, in my opinion, depends heavily on the acting. These films as such are mostly a one-man show (except the young and beautiful female sidekick Robert usually gets), so it’s up to Tom. Luckily this time there was no romance involved, I don’t view it as a spoiler, it just simply common sense on the part of the writers – enough is enough, he’s a professor, not some kind of a sugar daddy, for god’s sake!
The plot was a bit chaotic, especially the first half an hour – it was extremely nightmarish. However, I still blame the novel for this, the film tried its best to clean up the mess and deliver a fairly logical story.
All in all, Inferno is really enjoyable. It’s the same Dan Brown – so don’t expect many surprises, he still uses the same template for all of his works. But the end result is an entertaining action film, the kind that makes you forget yourself for a while and live only inside the film (which is rare as well) with good actors and lovely scenery of historical and cultural places. Certainly worth checking out.
Cup of Fiction 