The Tourist
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The Tourist
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Writers: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck , Christopher McQuarrie
Stars: Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie and Paul Bettany
Elise: "I wish we'd met in another life, Frank."
Stars: Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie and Paul Bettany
Elise: "I wish we'd met in another life, Frank."
Showcasing movie stars, Venice canals and a failed homage to a successful genre, "The Tourist" in all aspects is a dud, wearing sandals, contriving photographs of better scripts but eventually doesn't manage to deliver the full picture.
Made by a wallet for the wallet, it sparks a menacing career storm above the head of Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, director of the mesmerizing ," The Lives of Others" . "The Tourist" is an elaborate scam, preposterously flirting with the Oscars.
Everyone aims to find the mystery man, Alexander Pearce, though only the femme fatale Elise (Angelina Jolie), knows the trail to his secret location. Fogged by love's sweet haze, she follows his letter to the letter. Elise gets wind of the perfect decoy on the train to Venice in the smoky characteristics of Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp) but Frank wants to be free from desolation and despair. Exhibiting an exchange of charming looks, witty one-liners, new and intriguing products, heavy make-up, eyelashes and weird beards, one dinner and ten minutes later, they step on watery Venice.
Inspector John (Paul Bettany) is caught off balance with Alexander's case and convinces himself that Frank is Pearce so he goes with microphones a blazing. Frank is forced by goons to run in his pajamas on the wide-shot rooftops of Venice, Elise worries for his well-being, standing on an insanely beautiful little bridge (smothering the sequence's pace) and the rest is a predictable, badly narrated, romantic run for the money, culminating into an even more disastrous ending. Fantastico!
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (I like writing his name, makes me feel... eloquent) first Hollywood film lacks personality but that's expected when you deal with money-hogs, the unexpected part is that it doesn't manage to pay the necessary tribute to Hitchcockian espionage love affairs and the 70's romantic thrillers in general.
Hopelessly, aspiring to remind us that we are indeed watching a farcical thriller, the filmmaker couldn't survive the collapsing brick walls of stardom-romance on the script's, wannabe mystery toned, glass house.
Unengaged performances surface the ugly nature of no-chemistry, the leftovers of Cary Grant's work on similar characters sink to the bottom because it seems Johnny didn't want to wet his feet. Jolie looks ravenous, sorry the movie does, she looks ravishing and everyone glances at her abundantly.
"The tourist" inadvertently is an actual tourist.
