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A breathless thriller that borrows its title and plot points from Dante's "Inferno" succeeds in invoking thoughts of hell in the viewer — who will be prompted to ask such questions as "What the hell is going on?" "Why the hell would someone do that?" And "Who the hell is this stupid?"
This is the third movie in which director Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks have teamed to try, and fail, to turn one of Dan Brown's novels into something coherent or plausible. As it happened a decade ago with "The Da Vinci Code," and three years later with "Angels & Demons," the new movie jumbles together European scenery and sinister conspiracies without generating any real suspense.
Hanks' character, Harvard "symbologist" Robert Langdon, wakes up in a hospital bed, hooked to an IV, his head in pain and his memory missing the last 48 hours. It's up to his ER physician, Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), to inform Langdon that he's in Florence, Italy, and that his head was grazed by a bullet, which accounts for the amnesia.
When an assassin (Ana Ularu), posing as a Carabiniere (an Italian cop), comes gunning for Langdon, Brooks helps him escape and becomes his sidekick as he tries to piece together what happened. He learns it has something to do with a visionary billionaire, Bertrand Zobrist (Ben Foster), who died three days earlier — but not before setting into motion plans to unleash a global plague that would solve overpopulation by killing half of humanity.
Langdon finds a clue to Zobrist's plan in a depiction of Dante's conception of hell. With that, we're off to the races through another chain of anagrams, historical allusions and other clues that only Langdon knows and will explain to the audience through endless plot exposition. Meanwhile, two World Health Organization operatives, played by the French star Omar Sy and the Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen, are hot on his trail — as is Mr. Sims (Irrfan Khan), the leader of a shadowy corporate security company.
Langdon and Brooks are supposed to be racing the clock, as Zobrist's plague will be unleashed within 24 hours. But there's scarcely any urgency in Howard's direction, as the story jets from Florence to Venice to Istanbul. Screenwriter David Koepp (who adapted "Angels & Demons") tries keeping the audience off-balance by throwing Langdon's recall into doubt, but he's also saddled with a major plot twist (created by Brown in the book) that most viewers will see coming from the beginning.
Worst of all, Hanks seems bored by the whole enterprise. The actor has been testing himself with challenging roles recently, mostly in playing real-life figures like Walt Disney ("Saving Mr. Banks"), diplomat James Donovan ("Bridge of Spies") and pilot Chesley Sullenberger ("Sully"). Returning to play Langdon in "Inferno" feels like a step backward, seeing the sights as he tries to make a stupid movie sound smarter than it is.
Twitter: @moviecricket —
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'Inferno'
A decade after "The Da Vinci Code," Tom Hanks and Ron Howard still try to bring excitement to a silly franchise.
Where • Theaters everywhere.
When • Opens Friday, Oct. 28.
Rating • PG-13 for sequences of action and violence, disturbing images, some language, thematic elements and brief sensuality.
Running time • 121 minutes.