Movie Review: "The Tourist"

The Tourist

Directed by: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Starring: Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Paul Bettany, Rufus Sewell, Timothy Dalton
Rated: PG-13 for violence and brief strong language

When considering the biggest flop of 2010, many will say the Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie film The Tourist. It was not well received, it did not make a lot of money, and Ricky Gervais mercilessly criticized the film during the Golden Globes. Why the hate? Simply, because the film isn't "Hollywood" enough for Americans. We need a quick moving story, plenty of action, jokes with punchlines so we know when we are supposed to laugh, and an ending where the hero has a fist-fight with the villain. I've seen that film a thousand times and I'm bored with it. The Tourist is the exact opposite of that film, making it one of the most unique non-art films I've seen since Peter Weir's brilliant movie The Truman Show. Now, the film is hardly perfect; Johnny Depp may have delivered his worst performance, seeming rather bored throughout the movie, and there are some truly awful green-screen shots in the film that pull you out of the story. Despite that, The Tourist feels like a throwback to one of those slow, "golden age of Hollywood" movies that Hitchcock would have made. I found The Tourist to be a clever, original, and relatively clean genre-less movie that simply was too unique for it's blockbuster audience. Not surprising it's European feel, considering the director is named Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.