Review of The Tourist (2010) by Walter M — 27 Apr 2012

Like any very attractive woman, Elise Ward(Angelina Jolie) has more than her share of admirers. But in her case, it is professional, with the police wanting to know the whereabouts of her lover, Alexander Pearce. She doesn't know either but a note delivered at a Paris cafe, telling her to catch a train to Venice, provides clues. In the confusion, she gets away while all Inspector John Acheson(Paul Bettany) has to show for his efforts is one rather confused waiter which does not make Chief Inspector Jones(Timothy Dalton) happy in the least. The other part of the instructions call for her to pick a random stranger on the train to sit next to which turns out to be Frank Tupelo(Johnny Depp), a schoolteacher from Wisconsin, who is also flattered at the attention. Now, if the cops were the only people out to get Pearce...

I'm not disappointed that Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck chose a lightweight project to follow up his first film, "The Lives of Others," with. Rather, what I find especially disappointing about his second film "The Tourist" is how lacking in suspense it is, when in his first film, he showed a particular skill at creating suspense out of the most mundane moments, some of which involving typewriters. And Angelina Jolie does not command the room the way a beautiful woman should. That leaves it up to Johnny Depp to take "The Tourist" on his shoulders and run with it which is just enough for some of us most days, even with the possibility that none of this makes a lick of sense.