The Tourist marks the first Hollywood film for German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, the Oscar winning director of The Lives Of Others, which explored life in East Germany under the watchful eyes of the secret police force, the Stasi. The Tourist is a subpar Hitchcock-like romantic crime thriller, but is a bit of a disappointing experience.
The Tourist marks the first Hollywood film for German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, the Oscar winning director of The Lives Of Others, which explored life in East Germany under the watchful eyes of the secret police force, the Stasi. The Tourist is a subpar Hitchcock-like romantic crime thriller, but is a bit of a disappointing experience.
Alexander Pearce is a man of mystery, a man who embezzled $700 million from Reginald Shaw (Steven Berkoff), a tough gangster, and disappeared two years earlier. Pearce is being hunted by Scotland Yard and Interpol, who have no idea what he now looks like. Their only hope of finding him lies with following his mistress Elise Ward (played by Angelina Jolie), hoping that she will lead them to him. On a train travelling to Venice, Elise sits down opposite widowed American maths teacher Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp), and sets him up as an unwitting decoy to divert the attention of the authorities.
Audiences who think that some of the plotting here feels familiar may remember the suspenseful but little seen 2005 French thriller Anthony Zimmer. The Tourist is a remake of that film, but it lacks its underlying air of tension and suspense. Co-written by von Donnersmarck, Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) and Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) The Tourist is a disappointingly flat thriller. There are a few too many plot twists here that don’t work, and the plot itself doesn’t hold up well under close scrutiny.
Apart from a rooftop chase and a speedboat chase through the canals of Venice there is very little here to excite. Von Donnersmarck’s direction is rather flat and uninspired. The dialogue is rather flat, and the banter between Jolie and Depp, which should have added to the movie’s charms, lacks any sort of spark whatsoever. The couple also lacks any real on-screen chemistry.
Depp (in a role originally planned for Tom Cruise) plays his role dead pan, and gives nothing away, when the role required more of a spark. Depp is better playing quirky roles, and he looks uncomfortable here. Jolie (in a role originally slated for Charlize Theron) is, as usual, good to look at, and brings a suitably sensual quality to her performance, but her role as the typical femme fatale is hardly challenging. Paul Bettany and former James Bond Timothy Dalton are wasted as Scotland Yard detectives trying to recover the money. Berkoff does a nice line in menace and villainy – he even strangles one of his henchmen using a tailor’s tape measure – but even he can’t save the movie.
However the film looks great thanks to the gorgeous Venetian locations, and John Seale’s superb cinematography is the stuff of travelogues.
Apparently The Tourist was a troubled shoot from the beginning, with cast changes and behind the scenes personnel, and this is reflected in its uneven tone. Von Donnersmarck was brought in as a gun for hire, and his disinterest in the frothy and formulaic material is evident. And if he couldn’t be bothered, why should the audience care about it?
