MOVIE REVIEW Stay home: <i>Tourist</i> gets lost in cliché
PUBLICITY PHOTO
There's a way to make a movie like The Tourist, but Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck doesn't find that way. Here is a romantic comedy crossed with a crime thriller, shot in Paris and Venice, involving a glamorous mystery woman and a math teacher from Wisconsin. The plot is preposterous. So what you need is a movie that floats with bemusement above the cockamamie, and actors who tease one another.
Angelina Jolie does her darnedest. She gets the joke. Here is a movie in which she begins in a Paris cafe, eludes cops by dashing into the Metro, takes an overnight train to Venice, picks up a strange man (Johnny Depp) and checks them both into the Royal Danieli without one wrinkle on her dress or one hair out of place. And is sexy as hell. This is the Audrey Hepburn or Grace Kelly role, and she knows it.... [full review]
2 comments
Despite the reviews, several people recommended this film, so I went to see it. I'm glad I didn't pass it up. This isn't an Oscar movie, but a fresh respite from all the heavy dramas out there right now. I loved the humor, suspense & romance of this old style caper film set among the breathtaking Venice scenery. Maybe some of the critics are just too jaded & set in their ways to enjoy a an entertaining movie these days. In a time where EVERYTHING is shown in film, it's nice to see a film where something is left to the imagination.
Maybe CalGal found this movie fresh and I love to see something left to the imagination. But this movie represents top acting talent squandered on a terribly written script with a dull, juvenile, predictably unrealistic and unimaginative plot. The actors have zero chemistry and their portrayal of characters is wooden. The only thing good in the movie was panoramic pictures of Venice. When you are watching a "thrilling romantic drama" and find yourself distracted by Old World architecture you know you got ripped off at the box office. No wonder the producers did not allow any critics to see it before it hit the theaters. They made the worst movie of the year and tried to sneak it out to cut their losses on opening day. I guess even good actors will accept embarrassingly bad roles in a recessionary economy just to help pay their bills.