Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. Two great actors who have done a lot of impressive work on their own but have never been in a movie together, until now as they play two presumed strangers who fall in love and outsmart bad guys and cops, in Florian Henckel von Donnersmarcks' latest film "The Tourist."
Compared to some of the other couples that have shown up in romantic comedy/crime thrillers earlier in the year (Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl in "Killers" and Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise in "Knight and Day") Depp and Jolie do surprisingly well. Their chemistry wasn't the best but they felt natural together.
Jolie plays Elise, a woman who has fallen madly in love with an international gangster named Alexander Pierce. Jolie is flawless at a playing a mischievous person who looks like she's hiding something. Strutting down the streets of Paris always with a promiscuous smirk on her face. In every scene you know she is in control.
Although it felt like Jolie underplayed the part a little. Her performance seemed very similar to her character in her last film "Salt," in which she played a rough Russian agent. She goes for long periods of time without speaking or saying little. She hasn't been given much to do in her latest movies except look sexy.
Depp plays Frank, an American tourist who is mistaken for Pierce and pursued by a pack of gangsters who have been robbed by Pierce, as well as a group of Scotland Yard detectives who are trying to track him down because he owes thousands in back taxes. This is one of Depp's few performances where he isn't playing someone weird or extravagant and somehow he brings likeability and charm to the role.
The first impression we get of him is that he's nervous, paranoid and isn't exactly a smooth-talking ladies man. For one thing he smokes an electronic cigarette and can't ask Elise to dinner the right way. And when it comes to action and fighting, Frank isn't an expert in that area, considering he's a math teacher. It's a nice change to see a male lead that isn't tough and perfect from the start.
Like "Knight and Day," "The Tourist" is one of those movies that seems to show off Europe's breathtaking terrain. I guess America isn't adventurous enough. We get a lot of scenes featuring Paris and the striking canals and architecture of Venice as the golden sun shines down on it. If anything this movie will make you want to go to Europe. And combined with Reyeland Allison's' soundtrack "The Tourist" feels like one of those slick spy/James Bond movies.
From the advertisements "The Tourist" looked like another action/adventure movie that follows the run and shoot formula like many movies have this year. Yet to my surprise there wasn't as much running and shooting as there could have been. Von Donnersmarck could have easily shoved in one gunfight or boat chase after another but he focused more on the story. And there was a clever plot twist at the end that catches you off guard. However "The Tourist" is popcorn cinema: a lot of fun but not much substance.[[In-content Ad]]
