I confess that I do not like at all Angelina Jolie. As an actress she does not seem to me to have done anything that uses more her acting talent than her looks, and her looks … well, she is not my genre and I am probably not her genre, and I cannot care less about her romance with Brad or about their adopted children. On the other hands I deeply admire Johnny Depp, he made me watch even the pirates movies, and he is one of these actors who in my view cannot do wrong. So, I took a risk and pressed the Record button on the cable channel to record The Tourist and then the Play one to see it. Why? Maybe it was the name of the director who made me decide – it’s Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and in case you believe it’s a long German name just go to IMDb to see what his full name is – and the reason is that in his not too long record there is one of the best films in the history of post-Communist era films about Eastern Europe – The Lives of Others.
source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1243957/
The Tourist can not only be made by another director than The Lives of Others but could actually be produced on another planet. It’s a tourist trap, and I fell into it semi-willingly. It’s yet another thriller about hidden identities, with a story which starts in Paris to be continued in Venice via a high speed train, with much too many quotes from Hitchcock and his followers and too little real thrill and emotion. The bad guys look so cartoon-like that we feel no joy or sorrow when they are taken down in a few seconds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrqpKEOF8uw
(video start ClevverMovies)
Would I recommend this film? Do I consider it completely wasted time? None of these actually. Angelina Jolie acts as I expected, in other words as a beautifully-shaped wooden doll. Depp is not at his best, seems slightly amused to be in the film, but at the end of the day he succeeds to save the film from total loss. Story is not that bad and the cinematography and setting are good enough to allow for this film to be called fair entertainment. Not my first choice or recommendation, but neither a film to avoid.