This was a good book, and a better movie. Ron Howard does a nice job of dancing right up to the issue of faith and then lets the dialogue drop, leaving the audience to finish the conversation. It is more intellectual than the Da Vinci Code was, which is a point in its favor. My wife is a brilliant linguist so the symbology part was near to my heart. I rather liked the way Howard captured the pagentry & traditions of Catholicism as well. All of the costumes were authentic and very colorful. The politics of the vatican seemed to be done fairly as well. The one line from the movie that rang with the truth was, "Be careful, these are men of God." Ron Howard & Tom Hanks hit another one out of the park!