U.S. Catholic bishops rate 'Angels & Demons' 'highly improbable but mindlessly entertaining'

May 25, 11:03 AMBooks on Film ExaminerConnie Ann Kirk

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Actor Tom Hanks, left, shares a laugh with writer Dan Brown, center, and director Ron Howard as they pose in front of St. Peter's Basilica during the photo call for the World Premiere of the movie "Angels & Demons", in Rome, Sunday, May 3, 2009. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Office for Film and Broadcasting has posted its review of the film, Angels & Demons on its website.  The movie stars Tom Hanks, is directed by Ron Howard, and is based on the bestselling novel by Dan Brown.  In the review, the bishops say the film is, "highly improbable but mindlessly entertaining."

The review goes on to comment that Ron Howard's Angels & Demons is a better film adaptation than its predecessor, The Da Vinci Code (also based on the Dan Brown novel and directed by Howard). More importantly from the bishops' perspective, they say Angels is "less overtly offensive than that film."

While acknowledging the suspenseful aspects of Angels & Demons, the film, the bishops do not shirk from naming some of what they see as the most "egregious" of book author Brown's "mistakes or deliberate distortions" of the facts surrounding the church that get adapted into the film.  Among these are the underlying assumptions that the church universally sets itself against science; the nature and history of the Illumanti; and the details of the church's procedures for electing a new pope. 

The bishops give credit to screenwriters David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman for a script they say "tones down much of what was offensive in the book."  They say the changes were important and positive, adding, "they take care this time not to unduly offend."  "The final image of the Church is relatively positive," say the bishops, "and the ending is radically different [from the book] in several important aspects."  

Despite the limitations placed on Howard for where he could film in Italy, causing him to recreate many of the sets in Los Angeles that he might have preferred to film on location, the bishops comment that, ironically, Vatican City comes off looking "quite splendid" in the film.

Finally, they advise their followers: "So, see it if you must, for its thriller aspects, or for its highly picturesque Catholic trappings.  But seek the truth elsewhere."

According to IMDb, Angels & Demons grossed over $46 million on its opening weekend, May 15-17, 2009.

Read the entire U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops review here.