Movie Review - The Tourist

The Tourist (2010)

Starring Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, and Paul Bettany

Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

While watching The Tourist, I kept thinking that it was very reminiscent of 1950s/60s romantic thrillers like the Cary Grant/Audrey Hepburn-starrer Charade.  That flick took place overseas in Paris, whereas this flick calls Venice, Italy, its home.  That earlier flick was sumptuous and rich-looking, as is The Tourist.  Charade had two big name stars, as does this one.  Unfortunately, Johnny Depp is no Cary Grant and Angelina Jolie is no Audrey Hepburn...and together the two superstars lack any ounce of chemistry which is fundamentally vital to making this suspensor work.  It certainly doesn't help either of the two actors that the director (whose incredibly long name is listed above) never found a nice rhythm for the flick and the plodding nature bogged down the rather silly plot.

I could have lived with the silly plot, however, if there were any sparks onscreen between the two leads.  However, Jolie and Depp shockingly lack any ounce of charisma in their scenes together.  When Jolie's Elise first meets Depp's American tourist Frank on a train heading to Venice, I was expecting a moment where their eyes meet and a sparkle glimmers.  Instead, the duo is simply bland.

Elise is a woman on the run who meets Frank when her criminal boyfriend, Alexander, whom she hasn't seen in many months asks her to board the aforementioned train and find a man to "pretend" to be him.  This will create a decoy for both the British cops and the British gangster who are both following Elise to get to Alexander, allowing him time to get things settled before he sees her again.  Seeing as how Jolie's Elise is essentially seducing Depp's Frank into following her around the city of Venice, there was very little sensuality exhibited from the sex symbol.  And Depp (who I guess could be deemed a sex symbol as well) doesn't reciprocate any sensuality either.  The two simply don't work together and, to be quite honest, that is quite surprising.

While Depp and Jolie certainly shoulder a good chunk of the blame for the film not working, the director (helming his first American film) is also at fault for not getting good performances out of his two leads.  Add to that the fact that von Donnersmarck doesn't seem to have a keen sense as to how to correctly pace a film or a notion of how to create any semblance of excitement in action sequences and you've got a thriller that lacks thrills.  That this film was nominated for Best Comedy/Musical at the last Golden Globes shows how much of a sham those awards really are -- The Tourist is neither a comedy or musical nor is it any good.

The RyMickey Rating:  D