Film Review: INFERNO

After ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and ‘Angels & Demons’, this one’s sure to be a damper.
In ‘Da Vinci’, Robert Langdon traced Christ’s lineage, in ‘Angels’ he exposed the sinister ongoings in the Vatican. In this third sequel, art historian and cryptologist Langdon (Tom Hanks) aided by a trail of clues tied to the 13th century Italian poet Dante’s first part of his epic ‘Divine Comedy’, is in a race against time to discover a virus that threatens – or promises? – to wipe out half the global population. Unless of course, Director Ron Howard can help Professor Langdon to lay his hands on it first.

The film opens with Zobrist (Ben Foster), the megalomaniac scientist, electing to end his life when pursued by the authorities. Amnesia-ridden and tormented by delusions, Langdon wakes up in a Florence Hospital with a gash on his scalp and Dr. Sienna Brooks (a comely Felicity Jones) by his side. For no explicable reason, the latter helps him on his feet and out of the hospital backdoor when a gun-toting female carabinieri appears.

What follows is a two-hour whirlwind tour of Venice, Florence, Budapest and Istanbul during which the Professor of Symbiology must battle his own demons and those of the head of WHO Elizabeth Sinskey (Sidse Babett Krudsen). Enter the Head of the Consortium, Harry Sims (Irrfan Khan), who happens to head a private security agency, and who, by his machinations ushers Langdon through to the film.

At a shade over two hours, there’s enough time for Howard to give the film a twist in the tale. But despite the redoubtable Tom Hanks and the consummate Irrfan Khan, who seems to put on an accent mid-way through his lines, Inferno fails to raise the bar for either Ron Howard or author Dan Brown. Controlling the world’s population would not be a bad hypothesis for Presidential hopeful Donald Trump to clutch on to in the final run-up to the American elections.