ANGELINA JOLIE JOHNNY DEPP
TIMOTHY DALTON RUFUS SEWELL
DIR. FLORIAN VON DONNERSMARK
ROMANCE /CRIME 2010
**
The original title for this film may well have been “Angelina Drives A Boat Through Venice”, but obviously that wouldn’t have worked. Well, not with everyone, of course there are some
people, probably guys for the most part, who would be happy to watch Angelina simply measuring floor tiles on screen. But Ange alone, continuously pouting or otherwise, isn’t enough to carry a movie. And The Tourist proves it.
Equal billed co star, the ever cool Johnny Depp, here
sporting goatee , longish hair and perhaps a couple more healthy kilos, never seems to hit his stride; instead cruising from scene to scene, safe in the knowledge that he is Johnny Depp, and just his idiosyncrasies and ‘look” will get him through this mixed up romantic caper heist thriller mystery. Except it isn’t. The audience never truly engages with Depp’s character, Frank, and as a result we can predict the “twist” ending within the first 15-20 minutes.
Bad Johnny.
Director Florian Henckel Von Donnersmark (yes, really) has attempted to craft a story that would have been right at home back in the 1960’s, with Carey Grant and Audrey in the leads, where his inspiration for flavour, at least may have come from (it’s actually a remake of a 2005 French movie) but it doesn’t quite work. It tries to be too many things. Romance, comedy, mystery, action thriller, heist caper. And as a result, spreads itself too thin, never
succeeding fully in any one style.
Visually, however, we have a feast. The exquisite streets of Paris and the breathtaking, sweeping images of Venice are flawless and magnificent. The Italian Tourism office in
particular will approve of this movie, as it is often little more than an expensive and glamorous advertisement for the floating city.
The script has some holes, Steven Berkoff’s bad guy Shaw is a well used caricature, as is Paul Bettany’s Scotland Yard investigator but the classy Timothy Dalton is under used. But it is refreshing to see a modern film that is not full of graphic violence, profanity or any such disturbing things, one that at least tries to capture that classic romance of years gone by.
But The Tourist is not a classic. Ultimately, it is about
Angelina with an English accent, walking down streets and through hotel lobbies and ballrooms, whilst everyone looks at her. All that is missing is some poor fellow swooning as she goes by.
Some will find this irritating and pretentious; others of course, will see it as a Tourist attraction...
