DVDpendence . videophile
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THE TOURIST
With Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Paul Bettany, Timothy Dalton, Rufus Sewell, Steven Berkoff
Written by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Christopher McQuarrie, Julian Fellowes, Jérôme Salle
Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
It is not every day that Johnny Depp is part of a boring movie. This is one of them. An elusive master criminal has disappeared. The authorities have no leads, except for his woman. In Europe she gets a message from him to get onto the train and head to Venice, but she has to latch on to a stranger as a distraction tactic. The fall guy is Depp's character of an American teacher traveling through Europe. With some chases, not exactly side-splitting humour, obsession and borderline romance, this is not enough to make this as enthralling as everyone is making it out to be. Jolie tries too hard to act sultry and Depp looks bloated. The ending can pretty much go two ways, so you have a 50% chance of guessing the outcome. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's Oscar winning The Lives Of Others is miles removed from this frivolous flick, and it is understandable that he wanted to do something lighter after such an intense subject. The intension of making a Hitchcock-style movie is there, but if you don't care about the characters (as I failed to), that's pretty much it. The Venice setting makes for a marvelous backdrop though.
I'd forgotten the DVD had extra features (not too keen to spend any more time with it after the credits started to roll). These include A Gala Affair (looking at the creation of the ball scene), Bringing Glamour Back (making of the movie), Outtakes, Alternate Title Sequence, and a directors' commentary track (which I haven't been able to face yet).
3 / C
- Paul Blom
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