Review of The Tourist (2010) by Filipeneto — 27 Jun 2018

This movie could be so much better than it turned out! The story tells of a lonely American tourist who gets involved with a mysterious and beautiful woman, who will drag him to a police imbroglio in order to protect her lover, who is a wanted criminal.

The main location of the film is the eternal and addictive Venice, with its beautiful canals and palaces. But a beautiful landscape does not make a movie. The two main actors were Johnnie Depp and Angelina Jolie, two consecrated and proved stars.

But both he and her seemed constantly so theatrical, with modes and dialogues affected and literary, that never proved comfortable with the characters and the film. They looked like what they are: actors playing characters.

I don't even need to mention that they were not capable of creating a romantic chemistry among themselves. Jolie still had an additional problem: the very elaborate and chic wardrobe she wore constantly.

She was beautiful, its true, but she still seemed a lot like herself, not to mention that her clothes could catch our attention faster than the actress's talent (an indisputable talent, no one doubts it, she just could not use it, neither Depp).

Can we blame the script? Partly. All film is very theatrical and forced, the script is naturally part of it, but the great guilty is Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, director and screenwriter. He's not a very good director, he's not very experienced and he still has a lot to improve.

I'm not sure what he wanted to do in this movie but he totally failed at whatever he wanted to see done. Anyway, its still entertaining enough to watch, especially if we're not expecting a great movie but trying to spend some time idle.