Director: Ron Howard
Cast: Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Irrfan Khan, Omar Sy, Sidse Bebett Knudsen
The Inferno is a classic tale of mystery, finding clues and solving a puzzle thereby averting a global catastrophe, something that the Hollywood produces quite well. What fails me is the American obsession with genocide in the Third World. An alien attack or a naturally occurring global catastrophe is always happening in America and therefore the forces and a few genius minds get together to solve puzzles and save the “world”, but when it is about a created catastrophic condition, it always happens outside America.
While the plot of the film is decently convoluted, the revelations are simply obvious. Even having someone as prolific as Tom Hanks running the show does not help much. The film picks up from a slow pace and allows about the first 20 minutes for Tom Hanks to be even mildly functional; it goes into frenzy immediately after that. His memory loss and wounds don’t seem so effective to slow him down, travelling from one point of tourist interest to another, the film travels almost the whole of Europe and finally reaches Southwest Asia.
One of the objectives of the film is definitely to increase interest in works of art by great painters, sculptures and architects who have produced some excellent sites. It does that well and also shines some light on transportation systems. At a point in the movie when Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) has to reach Venice, he prefers to take the train, while booking plane ticket to send the chasing team on a spin. The mention of the exact time that the train would take is interesting, one wonders, if it really adds to the story.
Irrfan Khan, who appears in the scene towards the end of the first half and gains some screen time in the second half, is a relaxed person. Even in the heat of the moment, he manages to have a calm chat. He is ruthless and reminds you of the character he played in Maqbool, only this one is a much more suave and sophisticated version of him with significantly more light on his face and a lighter skin tone. The other characters are mostly confused in the grand scheme of things.
While I must refrain from giving more plot details so you can enjoy the mysteries of the film, I think it is important for me to reveal a few things, so you can look for the signs of things. The final location of the object that is to cause global catastrophe is in Southwest Asia. The object, once released would cause the destruction of almost 50 per cent of the human population. Let us assume and agree with the perpetrators and the author that it is important to make this sacrifice in order to ensure survival of the human race and save it from complete extinction.
On what grounds does one decide where to begin? Why go through all the pain and read up so much literature so the object can be masked and planted thousands of miles away in an unsuspected location amidst people who are completely unaware? If you have the object produced in your lab, why not start within the lab?
Are the lives of the people living in other continents any less important?
This is perhaps one of the weakest films in the Robert Langdon series, but the story of a created pandemic originating thousands of miles away and welfare organisations racing to solve puzzles to stop it seems too contrived, in a way, it seems to reflect that first a catastrophic situation is created, then it is planted in a far away developing country so that that country can be saved from it. One wonders what the hint is for?
