Last night I went with a group from church to see the movie that has so many so anxious. I'm no film critic but I can say a little.

I've seen some pretty rough reviews and didn't know what to expect. I've also heard from people I know who have seen it and they have either said it was brilliant or terrible.

I had a great time! I thought the pace was nice and the visual effects used to illustrate the paintings and historical sequences worked very well (at least most of them did). I also thought Tom Hanks was a very good choice to play robert Langdon. He wasn't at all what I had expected from the novel. He came across as kinder, wiser, and more mature. His relationship with Sophie was more mentor than lover and I thought that worked well. The short speech Langdon gives Sophie about faith in the closing scenes also worked well I thought.

There was an interesting juggling act going on to take the anti-church edge off a bit while not betraying the core of the story. It was deftly done with the dialogue changing several points. The film takes the interesting tack of putting the more outrageous historical statements in Taebing's mouth and making Langdon echo some of the novel's critics. There is also additional dialogue making it clear that the evil forces aren't the Vatican or Opus Dei, but a "shadow council" of clergy who have always been infiltrated in the structure of the Roman Catholic Church.

The clever puzzles, hair's-breadth escapes, and shocking revelations are still there and some of the best scenes are the manipulations of the images in Leonardo's paintings.

As I said before, I have come full circle on the book. I liked it greatly, then disliked it when I began pulling our factual errors. Now, with the film, I am back to liking this a great deal.

I can't take Dan Brown's version of history seriously, but there are some very good ideas in the story. The most important lesson I find is the reminder that it is dangerous to let other people do all of our thinking for us. Yes, educated clergy are an invaluable resource in grappling with spiritual, theological and moral issues, but they aren't a substitute for doing most of the hard work yourself. Jesus was critical of the religious leaders of his time who wanted blind obedience and of the people who were willing to give it to them.

We call Jesus the Good Shepherd but that's no excuse for people of faith to act like sheep. Genuine faith only comes with questioning, challenging, and thinking for ourselves.