National Treasure

If Indiana Jones had a son, it would probably be Benjamin Franklin Gates. Named after (you guessed it) one of the Founding Fathers, his ancestors have spent their lives pursuing a hidden treasure. In the opening scene, his grandfather (Christopher Plummer) tells young Ben about the legend of this hoard of gold, which has changed locations numerous times and eventually the Knights Templar swore an oath to protect. However, the Gates family name is held in contempt, and even Ben’s father Patrick (Jon Voight) is disillusioned after wasting many years trying to find it. Twenty-odd years later, the hero (played by Nicolas Cage) unearths another in a series of clues (or, more accurately, MacGuffins) in this labyrinthine search with the assistance of tech genius Riley (Justin Bartha) and Ian (Sean Bean). According to a clue entrusted to one of his ancestors long ago, “the secret lies with Charlotte”. Now we discover that this is the name of a long-lost ship buried beneath the ice in the Arctic.

In the cargo hold, Ben and Co. discover the “secret”, a riddle enscribed on a MacGuffin. He realizes that there is a treasure map hidden on the back of (wait for it) the Declaration of Independence. Ian and his men turn on him when he refuses to help them steal it. After the first of what turns out to be many close calls in this film, Ben and Riley escape. He eventually realizes that the only way to keep the document from being damaged is to steal it before his opponent does. An elaborate heist ensues, and soon Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger), who works for the National Archives, finds herself in the middle of it all. Naturally, Ian is relentlessly pursuing him. Further complicating matters is that the FBI, led by Agent Sadusky (Harvey Keitel), is also hot on the trail, too.

From this point, it becomes a MacGuffin hunt. One clue leads to another, with some hidden in places that people would never even think to look (a la “The Da Vinci Code”). Fortunately, Gates has an encyclopedic knowledge of history and so it’s pretty easy for him to traverse the country to find them. This sort of plot won’t be for everyone, but the cast is competent enough and Turtletaub makes it consistently entertaining. With its PG rating, National Treasure is much more family-friendly than Indiana Jones’ adventures. Nobody’s faces melt here, and there are no beating hearts ripped from chests. Yeah, there are plenty of explosions, car chases, and shootouts (it is a Jerry Bruckheimer production, after all), but gore is absent and casualties are kept to a minimum.

Cage has his own reputation: he is famously one of those hit-or-miss actors. Here, he is perfectly suited to play a character whose sanity is often called into question. Bean is a wonderful adversary (in keeping with his villainous roles). Voight and Keitel are great at giving the kind of performances you would expect from them. Bartha adds great comic relief. The score by Trevor Rabin also compliments the chase/action scenes well. It’s easy to draw comparisons to the aforementioned archaeologist with the fedora, and many have accused this of being too derivative of those more iconic films. I think that’s a bit of an unfair criticism, considering that Indy was inspired by the Saturday morning serials that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas grew up watching. Besides, are those movies really less preposterous than this one?

If you enjoy this kind of escapist entertainment, National Treasure should fit the bill (no pun intended). It’s a fun time, and it might just make young viewers curious enough to learn more about real history. National Treasure does not reinvent the genre or anything, but again it was never trying to. It succeeds pretty well in doing what it intended, nothing more and nothing less.

Rated PG

2 hours, 11 minutes