The Tourist - (December 10th, 2010): PG-13
Distributor: Columbia Pictures (subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment)
Opening Weekend Box-Office: #2 with $16,472,458
Domestic Box-Office Gross to-date: $30,791,000
Gross Revenue: $53,091,000
Budget: $100 million
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
While I would love to tell you that this newest romantic thriller is a wholly original adventure for audiences, The Tourist is actually a remake of the 2005 French film Anthony Zimmer. Though the original hardly made headlines, some of the Hollywood talent originally attached to this project included Tom Cruise, Sam Worthington, and Charlize Theron, but once Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie settled into the lead roles, The Tourist generated massive media attention throughout its filming. With every entertainment news medium from Entertainment Weekly to Access Hollywood reporting on this first collaboration between A-listers Depp and Jolie, little else was needed to market the film; all audiences needed to know was the release date. For me, the strong emphasis on the foreign setting of the film alone was intriguing, because even though such a production decision has worked in the past, it is by no means a guarantee of success; filming in Beijing added an excellent dimension to this past summer’s The Karate Kid, but George Clooney made rural Italy look like the most boring place on earth in The American. At the very least, the promise of a mysterious and dangerous romance between two such high-profile celebrities made The Tourist an absolute must-see.
The Tourist opens with Scotland Yard officials following a mysterious woman named Elise Clifton-Ward (Jolie), who is the former lover of high-profile thief Alexander Pearce. While sitting at a café in Paris, Elise receives a letter from Alexander instructing her to board a train to Venice and pick out a man that the police will believe is him, as it is believed that Pearce has recently had a large amount of reconstructive surgery. While on the train, Elise picks out and engages an American tourist, Frank Tupelo (Depp), who is instantly attracted to the mysterious woman. Soon enough, because of Elise’s actions, Frank finds himself pursued by British agent John Acheson (Paul Bettany) and gangster Reginald Shaw (Steven Berkoff), both of whom believe Frank to be the famous criminal that they have been chasing for years. While Frank is left to sort through this case of mistaken identity, Elise finds herself developing feelings for the man she has put in harm’s way, and together the two must evade their pursuers and find the real Alexander Pearce.
Though there is a veritable laundry list of negative aspects to this film, the one element that saves The Tourist from being an absolute disaster is Angelina Jolie. As the seductive and hypnotic femme fatale Elise, audiences are engaged by Jolie’s every move onscreen, making it very easy to understand how someone as naïve as Depp’s Frank could follow her into a dangerous situation. Unfortunately, this is about as far as the chemistry goes between Jolie and Depp, because it almost seems like The Tourist couldn’t decide if it wanted to be a romance or a thriller; rather than successfully blending the two genres, the film switches between mushy proclamations of love and tense chase sequences so often that the budding romance between the lead characters feels forced rather than natural. Audiences are just supposed to accept that Jolie and Depp belong together without any of the plot elements truly backing up that conclusion…by film’s end; Elise’s proclamation of love for Frank is so far out of left field that it is near-impossible for the audience to accept. Now, this lack of chemistry has led many to criticize Depp’s performance, but I believe that rather than this being a representation of bad acting, The Tourist simply showcases a case of bad casting. Johnny Depp is famous for offbeat and outrageous characters like Captain Jack Sparrow, but Frank is so horribly vanilla that Depp feels simply out-of-place in this bland role, and that’s a shame.
Aside from the uneven acting and chemistry between the A-listers, the biggest problem with The Tourist still involves the weak story elements. As I mentioned earlier, Frank is being mistaken for a high-profile criminal and is being chased by both the police and ruthless gangsters, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen such potentially thrilling elements presented in such an un-engaging manner. For instance, at one point there is a boat chase through the Venice canals that is shockingly boring as Depp and Jolie try to escape embarrassingly incompetent henchmen. The film’s primary antagonist, gangster Reginald Shaw, tries to be as threatening as possible, but even when he’s holding a knife to Jolie’s throat or a gun to Depp’s head, the audience still feels no sense of danger or urgency. The Tourist also tries to throw in a few twists to keep the audience interested, but they are so predictable and lazy that anyone who has seen a spy or action film can see them coming a mile away. In the end, even the combined star power of Depp and Jolie can’t save a film as flawed as The Tourist.
Well, early critical reviews were decidedly unkind to The Tourist, and judging from the opening weekend box-office numbers, audiences weren’t much more sympathetic. In light of the early negative feedback, Columbia had actually dampened its projections for The Tourist’s first weekend in theaters; studio execs were hoping for $20 million, which is low considering the two film leads, so a performance of under $17 million is undoubtedly embarrassing. Admittedly, The Tourist opened up against the new entry in the Narnia series, but the combined performance for both films was still weak, signaling a poor start to the Holiday Movie Season. Even though Jolie was easily the best part of this film, The Tourist still represents the worst start for both of the high-profile stars in years, and with so many new films coming in the next few weeks, most accompanied by buzz of Oscar-worthy performances, it is unlikely that Columbia Pictures will recover it’s $100 million production budget. Regardless of how you feel about Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp, it’s a better use of your time and money to wait for The Tourist to hit Red Box or Netflix.
Overall Recommendation: Low
