Director Ron Howard seems to have a passion for Dan Brown novels. Following up on his film adaptations of The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. Ron Howard is now giving moviegoers a third adventure featuring the capers of professor Robert Langdon in Inferno. This fast paced solve-the-puzzle within 24 hours race against time drama takes us by train, planes and automobiles through Italy and Turkey to stop a deadly virus from being release into world.
Inferno opens with Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) in a hospital room suffering from a head trauma. His beautiful young English doctor, Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), explains to him that he was grazed by a bullet that could have killed him and as a result has temporary amnesia. Robert is confused and disoriented trying to figure out the events that led him to the hospital and becomes even more alarmed when he realizes that he is in Florence with no memory of how he got there. Before he has a chance to piece together what has happened to him, Vayentha (Ana Ularu), posing as a female Italian police officer arrives at the hospital with guns drawn and attempts to assassinate Robert. Sienna helps Robert escape and they wind up back at her apartment to start putting together missing pieces of a puzzle to figure out why someone would attempt to assassinate Robert.
Robert is having visions of dying people, a mysterious woman in a veil, a stoic silent man, and blood shattering through windows. In his jacket pocket Robert discovers the first sign that will begin a chain reaction of searching for clues hidden in classic art pieces.
The storyline introduces a rogue security agency run by Harry Sims (Irrfan Khan) and the World Health Organization headed up by Elizabeth Sinskey (Sidse Babett Knudsen). We find out from them that billionaire biologist Benard Zobrist (Ben Foster) has a theory that the overpopulation of the world will lead to its destruction and the only way to save the planet is to wipe out millions of people. The mad scientist has developed a deadly virus that is set to release in the next 24 hours. Both Harry and Elizabeth are on a collision course with Robert as he too discovers the diabolical plot to annihilate over half the world’s population. Christopher Bouchard (Omar Sy), another player who wants to get his hands on the virus so he can sell the deadly contaminant to the highest bidder, is about to foil the plans to save the world.
Inferno starts off as a confusing disoriented mess but thankfully starts to explain itself half way through. The film is laid out so that the audience will be as confused as its lead character – that way – they too can enjoy the quest to solve the mystery of where the virus is hidden. Knowledge on the history of art and quotes from Dante’s poems lead the accomplished historian on the trail for finding the virus. Inferno is an accelerated history course that provides detailed hidden clues left in treasured art work stored in various cities. It can all be very confusing if one is not paying attention. If the dialogue had been slowed down just a tad the film would have been so much easier to follow Robert as he mapped out the path to the pathogen’s location.
Khan, playing the crafty head of a shady organization, adds a nice spark to the film. Jones is cute and delightful as the medical prodigy that can keep up with the clever professor. Sy and Knudesen don’t get enough screen time but both are devilishly good in their roles. Hanks just looks like he is having a blast playing the intellectual detective and he always manages to add charm to the roles he plays.
A scenic film moving at lightning speed, Inferno does manage to stay interesting but at times seems very farfetched and hard to believe. There are attempts at giving clear cut explanations of how to solve the case of the missing deadly microorganism but the film is moving almost too fast for anyone to really grasp what is going on. It doesn’t make any sense how Robert is having visions of an apocalypse and why it even appears like some of the good guys are trying to kill him. The storyline is often very jumbled and convoluted. Not making much sense, there is a lot of scientific mumbo jumbo trying to explain away why a biologist would get the wacky idea of killing off humanity.
Inferno is about two hours of watching its characters running from cathedrals to museums on a kind of treasure hunt but once the world is saved from catastrophe the ending falls flat. Filled with off the wall theories on history, theology, and science, Inferno never really catches fire but is a flick that has just enough going on to provide some popcorn fun at the theater.
