It may have seemed like a can’t-miss proposition to put two of the most attractive A-list stars in the world together in a romantic thriller. Is there a more consistent performer in the world today than Johnny Depp? Is there a more glamorous leading lady than Angelina Jolie? This was an easy sell by the advertisers. Sadly, the “can’t miss” pairing is missing any trace of on-screen chemistry. If the intention here was to make a classic pairing like Bogie & Bacall or Tracey & Hepburn or Fred & Ginger, the idea fails because the parts of the pair are greater than the whole.
Director Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others) co-wrote this remake of Anthony Zimmer along with Julian Fellows (Gosford Park) and Christopher McQuarrie. The original film was a box office disappointment, which makes it an odd choice for a remake. The basic Hitchcockian plot of an unsuspecting, innocent man who gets involved in a dangerous mystery, meets a mysterious beauty and ends up on the run is an old standard that often wields excellent results but sometimes results in a misfire, such as here.
The story revolves around gorgeous Elise (Jolie) an Englishwoman (with a come-and-go accent) who lives in France and is being spied on by British police from Scotland Yard, led by the obsessed Inspector Acheson (Paul Bettany), because they are hoping she will lead them to her elusive ex-lover Alexander, who is wanted in multiple countries for embezzling money. Word has reached them that Alexander has changed his appearance with extensive plastic surgery, so the only way they can catch him is to wait for him to make contact with Elise.
Elise is instructed, via a surreptitiously delivered note, to be on the train to Venice at a certain time, where she is told to find a man who is the same height and build as Alexander and make the cops believe that this unsuspecting patsy is Alexander. Boarding the train on schedule, Elise randomly picks morose math teacher Frank (Depp) who is on an extended sabbatical from his job and is touring Europe alone. She begins to flirt with him and then invites him to her hotel room in Venice.
Not only are the police after the unseen Alexander, but so is notorious gangster Reginald Shaw (Steven Berkoff) who Alexander once worked for, before absconding with $2 billion of Shaw’s money. Needless to say, Shaw is not happy with Alexander and has been hunting for him ever since. When he gets word that Alexander is in Venice; he heads there and mistakes Frank for his true quarry. Frank must go on the run and try to somehow extricate himself from this deadly scenario.
It’s very rare that Johnny Depp does not give a knock-out performance. Sadly, this is the second film in a row that the talented Depp disappoints, although his failure here is for a totally different reason than in Alice in Wonderland. The problem here is that he is required here to play a normal, uninteresting person who stumbles into intrigue. Depp is the last person you should cast in the role of the average Joe. He specializes in playing eccentric oddballs, such as in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. There’s no one better at making an unusual person lovable but he’s not the guy to make a dull person interesting. He underplays the role of a character who’s supposed to be boring and so the character comes across as rather lifeless
Jolie comes across a bit better because her character isn’t required to do much else aside from looking alluring, which Jolie is very good at. There are lots of scenes of Jolie walking, adorned in a collection of elegant outfits, looking as sexy as is humanly possible while the camera lovingly follows her every step. The sigh-inducing close-ups of her stunning face make her lack of facial expressions forgivable. She speaks her lines in a rather wooden mode of delivery, and you can almost hear her thinking “With looks like these, who needs to emote.”
The dialogue is a bit stilted, leaving the impression that the writers were trying much too hard to create the kind of witty banter that used to roll off the tongues of Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. There are a number of illogical plot developments that can’t be discussed here without giving away any of the major plot twists.
The Tourist had a lot of potential and Jolie hasn’t looked this exquisite since Mr. and Mrs. Smith. The scenic beauty of France and Venice is wonderfully captured. Overall, however, the film is generally disappointing.
"The Tourist" opens December 10, 2010 and is rated PG13. Romance, Thriller. Directed by Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck. Written by Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck, Julian Fellows, Christopher McQuarrie . Starring Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany.
