Da Brooklyn Code

Yesterday two neighborhood women were protesting in front of the movie theater. Two Italian-American women, one seemingly in her 50's, the other possibly her mother. Harmless types with a lawn chair and a hand-written sign calling "The Da Vinci Code" blasphemous. I don't know why I stopped but I did.

"You do know it's fiction, right?"

Yes, they said they did, but they were still offended by what was up on the screen because it defiled the name of Jesus. I asked how did they know, had they seen the movie? They didn't answer right away, but kept talking over me about blasphemy.

I repeated, "Did you see it?" and finally the younger one said, "We read the script."

Okay, I respect that. But I said again, it's just a movie, and not meant to be taken seriously, and the younger woman cut me off. "Tell that to the Muslims who were offended by the cartoons," and I had no response. I mean, she was right, but they weren't standing on my block, and hadn't been, but she was. It just seems to me that there are more important injustices out there to protest than a silly summer movie.

I gave up and walked away.

At least I stopped myself before I said something about how I think the Catholic Church is offensive for its policies against women's and gay rights. Or its practice of shielding child molesters.

The truth is I no longer have any desire to see the film. Reviews are mediocre and about the best I have heard is that Ron Howard is a better filmmaker than Dan Brown is a writer. I'm really glad I never read the book. I'm sure I would have been up in arms about how once again, poorly written literature is outselling quality writing.

But this also means no movie this weekend - I've seen everything else that's playing across the street, and there's nothing compelling enough to pay subway fare to see. It's raining, though - the perfect Sunday afternoon to sit in a theater. Darn.