Friday, 17 December 2010 Posted by joeldfisher at 05:40

The Tourist

Venice is a beautiful city, it can evoke many different moods, from the horror of Don't Look Now, to the thrills of Casino Royale but there's no doubting the beauty of one of the most unusual cities in the world, so lets make a movie there.

This was probably how the first meeting went for the screenwriters of The Tourist. Also lets add two of the most beautiful stars in Hollywood, says the casting director.

The Tourist is a comedy, action romance about a beautiful, mysterious woman played by Angelina Jolie; (Tomb Raider, Salt) who meets a bumbling maths teacher (Johnny Depp; Pirates of the Caribbean, Alice in Wonderland)  and takes him on an adventure across Venice. There are shootouts, speedboat chases and gangsters and of course a small cameo from Timothy Dalton.

Elise (Jolie) is on the run from Scotland Yard and is pursuing her love, and partner in crime, the mysterious and illusive Alexander Pearce who is being sought by Scotland Yard but has heavily disguised himself through millions of dollars worth of plastic surgery. Right from the start Elise is leading the best of Scotland Yard right where she wants them and is distracting her pursuers by her unwavering beauty (nice to see Angelina Jolie playing against type for once). She is instructed to find a with the same height and build as Pearce and make Scotland Yard believe he is the real deal, so who does she happen upon? The unassuming Frank, (Depp).

The roles of the pair are not essential to the plot (Johnny Depp could have been a particle physicist for all the audience cares, after all Cary Grant was an advertising executive in North by Northwest) so The Tourist is clearly a character piece and doesn't deal with little squabbles like reality and neither should the audience.

The movie gently guides the audience along and lets them enjoy the scenery with the little intervals of gunfire and chases but never misleads them, and never intends to either. This is a gentle family thriller for those who don't like swearing and blood and that's just fine, you may even guess the ending if you're paying attention, not that you would need to pay much attention in which to do so.

Johnny Depp is an unusual choice to play the mild mannered maths teacher but it certainly pays off, even when he's not acting he's acting and it shows, he's his usual charming and self effacing self and the audience soon warms to him. Angelina Jolie plays a calculating and sophisticated English lady (those Tomb Raider fans out there will get a reminder of her accent) and suitably plays the untouchable and desirable beauty with a hidden secret and she does it well, mainly just by looking pretty, the majority of the acting is left up to Depp.

Steven Berkoff (44 Inch Chest, Rancid Aluminium) plays the aforementioned gangster and does the way he knows best, by being Steven Berkoff, his opening scene is of him wearing black (as all bad guys do) looking menacingly out of the window of an airplane and you instantly know he's the bad guy.

That's the thing about The Tourist, everybody should be exactly as you think they should be and for the most part they usually are and the movie goes in no way to deceive the audience so therefore the ending of the movie seems a little out of place and speaking for myself and perhaps many other audience members I believe the ending in my head would have been better because the 'reality' on the screen is perhaps a little far fetched.

by Joel Fisher