Seeing the presence of Henckel von Donnersmarck’s name during the end credits caused me to wonder – was The Tourist, the movie that I’d just watched, directed by the same man who made a powerful debut with Lives of Others! There’s no denying the movie had the capability to rise above the numerous thrillers that are produced by Hollywood’s assembly-line, and the presence of Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp in the star-cast really had make me feel that this would turn out to be different. The film started out well, and the scene where Jolie meets Depp on a train through European countryside was both smart and ingenuous. Nonetheless, this story of Depp being thought of as an internationally red-flagged criminal who has stolen around 2 billion dollars from a British gangster, didn’t manage to be anything special. So while Depp finds himself on the run, he surprisingly gets help from Jolie (well, at least the audience wasn’t surprised at that), who used him in the first place to shift attention from herself, and ends with the two falling in love along with a couple of rather ludicrous twists thrown in for good measures – well, the movie sure turned out to be a disappointment given the engaging first half. The gorgeous screen-captures of Paris and Venice, and the presence of these huge stars, might have made our stay in theatre less painful than would have otherwise been.
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Genre: Thriller
Language: English
Country: US
