The Tourist (2010) Review

director: Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck

writers: Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck, Christopher McQuarrie, Julian Fellowes

starring: Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Paul Bettany

genre: Thriller

I wont be the first to say this but it has to be mentioned again. How is it that a movie filled with so much talent can be so goddamn mediocre and even really bad at times. I'll start off with the films stars Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie that we all know of, then we have a director Von Donnersmarck that did the critically acclaimed The Lives of Others (2006) and then we have the script by Academy Award winners Christopher McQuarrie of The Usual Suspects (1995) fame and Julian Fellowes that wrote Gosford Park (2001). With all of these people attached to the Tourist that is also a remake of a French film how is that they managed to make this film so boring?

The film is about Elise (Angelina Jolie) and her meeting with the international economic criminal Alexander Pierce. She follows his requests closely to meet up in Venice. On her tail is Interpol that is looking to apprehend Pierce but also the mob boss that he stole from called Shaw. Elise to fool both parties meets a tourist on a train to Venice named Frank (Johnny Depp). There meeting will make everyone confused with his identity as no one knows who Pierce is. Frank now in the middle of Elise, the mob and Interpol and has to figure out what is this all about and if hes truly falling in love with Elise and vice versa.

Seeing the film there is no way not to be disappointed. The action/chase scenes are very plain and never have any suspense to them. The film is sold partly as a comedy but there is nothing funny about it neither dialogue or specific scenes. The film is also not helped by the fact that dialogue is very simple as with the action. There are no good one liners or any memorable dialogue between the two stars.

As with most bad Hollywood films they are a result of director changes, creative disagreements and in the Tourists case the two stars unwillingness to believe in the film or try to make it at all better. They knew the film was crap and Jolie even admitted to it by saying in a interview that she just chose the job because it would be a quick shoot and in Venice to take the kids.

The whole film is tragically boring and only speeds up during the end where there is the climatic scene of Alexanders arrival. The film is plagued by its simpleness, its plain storytelling, bland acting and flat dialogue. The most troubling thing about it is that it feels as no effort was put in by anyone in the production. But the biggest problem of all is that there is no chemistry between the two stars and that the romance between them and of Jolie's character with the criminal Pierce is not believable. We never once get any real reasons why Jolie falls in love with Pierce or why she still follows his requests. And we also never really get a love story between Depp and Jolie or at that any charming characters back in forth so they can fall in love. The logical love triangle that could have been created and played out in the film is never present and is the films biggest failure.

I wish this film was better in so many ways due to the talent involved but it's not. Even it's twist ending cant be enjoyed fully as the rest of the film was so boring. Big stars, producers, studios and filmmakers should realize that paychecks are nice and feed families but there is a limit to the crap that we movie audiences can take. Thinking about it now I can see how much of a waste of time this film was and how mindless Michael Bay or Jerry Bruckheimer films weren't. At least those films that cost 100 millions of dollars and more were good enough to justify there budget with explosions, stupid entertainment, huge actions scenes and paychecks to offer silly goodness. This film could have been made at half price as it had northing to prove its 100 million dollar budget. Spare yourselves from this all round bore fest.

Personal Rating:

Review by Paul