Film review: Inferno’s fun but lacks a spark

The latest of Dan Brown's novels to be adapted for the big screen finds Tom Hanks back in the role of Robert Langdon, racing against time to save the world from impending doom.

Tom Hanks and Felicity Jones in Inferno. Jonathan Prime / Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures via AP Photo

Inferno

Director: Ron Howard

Starring: Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Ben Foster, Irrfan Khan, Omar Sy

Three stars

There has been a lot of talk about diversity in cinema in the past few years, and if there was an Oscar for inclusive cinema, Inferno would most likely walk away with it.

The film marks the third outing for Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, in an adaptation of the fourth book in Dan Brown's series of novels featuring the world's most popular – possibly only – symbologist (after The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, director Ron Howard has skipped over book three, 2009's The Lost Symbol).

Langdon is somehow still making a living cracking codes in a world in which, as the film wryly acknowledges, Google has largely taken over the role of solving mystical puzzles.

The international cast also includes: English actress Felicity Jones as Dr Sienna Brooks, Langdon's partner-in-puzzles; French-African Omar Sy (Chocolat, Selma) as Christoph Brüder, a shadowy figure whose motives are unclear; Danish star Sidse Babett Knusden (star of TV dramas Borgen and Westworld) as a World Health Organisation chief; and Bollywood star Irrfan Khan as the mysterious leader of a morally ambiguous private security organisation.

This time around, the action kicks off when Langdon wakes up in hospital in the Italian city of Florence, with a gunshot wound to the head and no memory of how he got there.

Dr Brooks helpfully explains that the memory loss is a side-effect of “the head trauma”, but has little chance to treat it before an attempt to assassinate the hospitalised symbologist forces doctor and patient to flee. As Langdon tries to piece together the clues about what happened to him, they find themselves on an international treasure trail, heavily based on Dante’s classic poem, Inferno, and in a race to save the world from impending doom.

It is all good-natured, mildly brain-teasing fun as the audience is whisked along with Langdon in an “escape the room”-style romp full of classically inspired riddles – kind of a Bourne movie for those who would rather spend their weekend tackling a cryptic crossword than an Ironman assault course.

In 2009, the movie version of Angels & Demons struggled to match the box-office success of The Da Vinci Code, which made three quarters of a billion dollars in 2006. The sequel still managed to earn half a billion dollars – hardly a disaster – however, that was seven years ago and, while Brown's books are still bestsellers, in terms of zeitgeist this movie might have missed the boat.

Still, Hanks remains an engaging leading man and Jones offers an endearing accomplice this time around.

The movie even finds time to raise some very valid questions about the world’s endemic overpopulation, in between breathtaking shots of European architecture and the cryptic clues.

Overall, it offers an aesthetically and cerebrally satisfying way to while away a couple of hours this weekend – and the final twist, though not quite up to The Usual Suspects standard, offers a welcome departure both from the novel and the traditional Hollywood good guy/bad guy narrative.