I’m usually confident when I see a Johnny Depp movie that it’s going to be good, but after seeing The Tourist I may be less confident in the future. The Tourist is a poor movie that lacks plausibility. The plot is far fetched, and considering they are two of the most attractive people in the world, there is a surprising lack of chemistry between the two main leads, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie.
The plot of The Tourist is a little bit ridiculous. Tourist Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp) meets mysterious Elise (Angelina Jolie) on a train heading for Venice. He is intrigued by her and accepts an invite to stay at a hotel with her. Following their meeting, Frank finds himself in a heap of trouble as he is mistaken for Elise’s runaway criminal ex-boyfriend Alexander Pearce. Since Alexander ran away with billions of dollars, the gangsters and federal agents after him believe he must have paid for plastic surgery and have given himself a new face to avoid detection. Not surprisingly, Elise finds herself becoming attracted to Frank as she repeatedly saves his life.
With the actors spouting good lines, this movie might have been more entertaining, but the dialogue is incredibly dull throughout. Where Elise should sound mysterious, instead she comes across as arrogant and just plain weird. Clearly Elise is stunning, but she’s obviously such hign maintenance, that you actually find yourself wondering what Frank Tupelo sees in her. Johnny Depp doesn’t look very engrossed in the role of Frank and although he has a couple of mildly humorous lines, there are no other positives to be taken from his performance.
The Tourist lacks substance and the believability factor. It’s hard to understand why so many high calibre actors signed up for this disaster of a movie. You’d think experienced actors would recognise a bad script/idea when they come across it. My guess is that one big name signed up, and the others followed on the basis of this. It seems unlikely that the poor script would have attracted them. I’m going to pretend this movie never happened, so my vision of Johnny Depp can remain unmarred.
Starring: Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Paul Bettany
Dir: Florian Heckel Von Donnersmack
