Movie review: National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Was this scripted before or after the writers' strike? (Hard to say, actually.)

by John P. Meyer

Kudos to the producers for not bestowing upon the second of the National Treasure films a title incorporating any sort of number designation. God forbid we'd have been saddled with National Treasure 2 in the same year we're burdened with installment designators such as Shrek the Third, Hostel: Part II, Saw IV and a host of others. With all the sequels strutting their numerical stuff on cinema screens lately I'd prefer to not have my face rubbed in the lack of creativity implied by such sequential story/character return engagements.

Kudos also to producer/director Jon Turteltaub for laying hold of such heavyweight acting talent as Helen Mirren, Harvey Keitel, Jon Voight, Ed Harris and (of course) Nic Cage. The casting department has also provided us with a make-believe president who looks downright presidential while commanding genuine make-believe respect in the person of Bruce Greenwood. And thanks especially for the big eye candy rush delivered by the sugar-coated presence of lovely German import Diane Kruger, reprising her role as Abigail Chase, Ben Gates' (Nic Cage's) love interest.

While we're still on the plus side of the movie rating scale let's talk about the spectacular sets and effects, which reflect the millions of dollars that must have been spent on them. Traipsing about a mysterious sunken city or balancing precariously on a tilting stone platform, the plight of our characters commands attention and succeeds in suspending our disbelief, just as an ancient sisal ladder somehow succeeds in suspending Ben and Abigail over a dark abyss. Amir Mokri's cinematography is technically proficient and unobtrusive, which is precisely what the material calls for.

As for the rest of it (plot, script, pacing, direction, etc.) - well, if you're enamored of the first National Treasure outing, you'll find nothing here to disappoint. Neither will you find anything like a fresh idea, but why change formulaic horses in mid-megahit stream, eh? (The first NT grossed something on the order of $173 million at the box office.)

Turns out Lincoln wasn't the only American patriot shot on the evening of April 14, 1865: so was Ben Gates' ancestor Thomas, a well-known puzzle-solver (like his descendants) who was initially duped into decoding a secret message earmarked for a group of underground Confederate-sympathizing agents. Upon realizing the import of the translation, Thomas valiantly attempts to burn the transcript and is shot dead in the process.

Back to the future: at the conclusion of a lecture on Civil War-related events, Ben Gates (Mr. Cage) is confronted by a disagreeable chap in the audience named Mitch Wilkinson (Mr. Harris), who claims to have evidence linking the Gates progenitor to the other conspirators involved in the Lincoln assassination plot. For moderately convoluted reasons, the only way Ben (and his aging father, Patrick - played by Mr. Voight) can prove the innocence of their ancestor is by locating a fabulous treasure mentioned in the partially-decoded text of the original John Wilkes Booth diary page. (You knew there had to be a fabulous treasure involved, right?)

Thus begins a globe-trotting odyssey of epical proportions for Ben, Patrick, Riley Poole (Ben's trusty tech geek, portrayed by an amusingly credulous Justin Bartha) and Abigail, lately estranged from her peripatetic paramour but willing to drop everything (including her new boyfriend) in order to assist Ben on another seat-of-the-pants treasure hunt.

From this point forward the movie's all over the place, literally and figuratively: Washington, Paris, London, Mt. Rushmore and - ultimately - Cibola. (Oops. Guess that amounts to a spoiler. But if there's one thing you can be sure about in a Hollywood potboiler such as this, it's that there will be a payoff.) During the brief interludes of expository dialogue which are unaccompanied by simultaneous cliff-hanging, you may find yourself hearkening back to a scene in little film called National Lampoon's Vacation, in which Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) exits the family station wagon at the rim of the Grand Canyon and rocks on his heels for a few seconds before whistling appreciatively, then shepherding his road-weary family back into the car to motoring off towards the next misadventure.

Befitting its crazed competitive treasure-hunting premise (Wilkinson's band of unscrupulous henchmen are also searching for Cibola), ...Book of Secrets devolves into a loosely-consolidated collection of disparate clue-concealing elements connected by fast cuts and melodramatic, statement-heavy, adrenaline-charged scoring. It's chock full of cyphers, shadowy Masonic references and the sorts of ingenious no-tech mechanical devices that still work perfectly after hundreds of years of lying idle.

In order to solve the various puzzles encountered during globetrotting it helps to be proficient at infiltrating the White House, crashing a presidential garden party and tapping into the London security camera infra-system on short notice. It also helps that the make-believe President enjoys exploring a hidden tunnel system beneath Mt. Vernon as much as the next guy. (Assuming that guy's last name is "Gates.")

It also helps to be able to make Herculean leaps of logic and make them accurately, as Ben does when confronted with a clue involving the words "resolute twins" (translated from the French, mind you). I immediately thought Romulus and Remus, but Ben's laser-like acumen took him directly to the exceedingly obscure correct solution during the course of a brief brainstorming session with a pair of indulgent Paris flics.

The book referenced in the film's subtitle turns out to be a compendium of conspiracy theories (which rise above the theoretical on the basis of their inclusion in the book), handed down from one president to another over the history of the republic. If there's any question regarding a further installment in the NT series, it's put to forceful rest when the Chief Executive requests Ben's help with an (apparently codified) entry on a certain page - which aside lends itself handily to the future deployment of National Treasure: Page 47. (Producers take note.)

Symbolic of this entire bombastic exercise is a scene in which the elder Gates casts a dollar bill (or was it a $50?) into a subterranean flow of water in order to gauge its direction; he's literally throwing money down the drain.

Here's hoping that - next time - they save some dollars for the script.

SCINTILLATING DIALOG IN SEARCH OF AN ALTERNATE REALITY IN WHICH IT ACTUALLY IS SCINTILLATING DIALOG: "I'm gonna kidnap him. I'm gonna kidnap the President of the United States." - Ben Gates to Riley Poole

SOMEBODY'S HAVING A BAD DAY: "My girlfriend kicked me out, I'm living with my Dad and my family killed President Lincoln." - Ben, on Riley's doorstep

IN CONCLUSION: "No more puzzles, Ben. We're all gonna die." - Mitch Wilkinson, in the overflowing sewers of Cibola