Sunday, June 5, 2011

The Tourist



The Tourist combines sexy actors with beautiful locations, up-to-date surveillance systems, speeding, and shooting. It's a fun movie -- rather like Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but with less character complexity.

Angelina Jolie wears rich, classic clothes that complement her beauty, sometimes emphasizing her lips and other times, her collarbones. She takes a train to Venice, picks up Johnny Depp's timid math teacher, and the takes him to stay with her in a luxurious hotel. Meanwhile, they are spied on by various London agents working with Interpol in an attempt to find Jolie's millionaire boyfriend (whom they believe is Depp).

Jolie is pleasing, though a little bland, as the femme fatale hopelessly in love with a criminal. Depp is charming as the math teacher and even manages to create character and distinction in his action scenes. Rather than stepping off his windowsill and stealthily running across the rooftops like a hero in any number of action films, Depp steps off his windowsill and runs across the rooftops as a math teacher would: with reluctance, with confusion, with humor, and with shy courage. Overall, there isn't much character development, especially since what the audience thinks it knows about the characters is overturned by a surprising twist near the end!

This film is fun because it is well-paced, exciting, and suspenseful. As a viewer, one probably won't care much about character development because it's not really expected in a Hollywood action flick. The Tourist should be seen in the right light, in the right environment: it's a fun caper, that is all.

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