THE TOURIST (Sony, 2010) D: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, w/ Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp. Rating: N DVD package: NNN Rating: N
Five minutes into his gushing commentary, director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck explains that he wanted to make a movie where the audience could “just lie back and not think.” This may explain why there’s almost no story, humour or drama.
The set-up promises Hitchcock-style light suspense: on the Paris-to-Venice train, Elise (Angelina Jolie) picks up naive American tourist Frank (Johnny Depp). She wants the cops and crooks on her trail to think that Frank is really absconded banker Alexander Pearce. Frank in peril ensues.
Donnersmarck is specific about his disdain for the action. The rooftop chase, he tells us, is there purely to show off Venice. He does get some beautiful postcard shots, but the chase is a snore. By comparison, the climax is a coma that leaves our heroes nothing to do but stand around while someone else pulls their fat out of the fire.
Jolie slinks around like a model missing her catwalk. Depp gives a good impression of a hapless sitcom dad and delivers the occasional mild joke.
In the commentary, Donnersmarck says he thinks Jolie and Depp are wonderful. When he’s not raving about her beauty, or the architecture, he points out every joke that he thinks is funny but failed to get a laugh.
EXTRAS Commentary, making-of doc, ballroom sequence doc, alternate title sequence, outtakes. Widescreen. English, French audio. English, French, Spanish subtitles.
