Movie Review: The Tourist (2010)
January 9, 2011 in Movie Reviews
Two of the biggest and sexiest stars in the world (Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie) teaming up with the director that brought us the Oscar-winning The Lives of Others — sounded like a winning formula to me.
Unfortunately, and inexplicably, The Tourist turned out to be a somewhat stale and poorly paced action thriller that wasted all the incredible talent involved.
As the title suggests, Depp is Frank, a tourist who by chance meets a woman named Elise (Jolie), who turns out to be a secret agent that turns his life upside down. There are gangsters and British government officials (led by criminally underused Paul Bettany), and there’s the usual chase scenes, mixed in with a touch of romance and a couple of twists, but it all felt strangely flat and uneventful (despite the beautiful backdrop of Venice).
Both Depp and Jolie produced sub-par performances by their usually lofty standards, but perhaps the biggest problem was their lack of chemistry. I really don’t know why, but they had such little spark that the romance, which drives the narrative, never felt believable.
At the end of the day, The Tourist was an average film (at most) that should have been much much better. Just shows you can’t toss up a couple of stars and a hot director and expect brilliant results.
2.5 stars out of 5
