Though there is by no means a sure-fire formula for a successful movie, by all accounts The Tourist seemed to contain everything necessary to please audiences: exotic foreign setting, a plot filled with mystery and intrigue, and a pairing of two of Hollywood’s biggest A-list celebrities. When she’s not jetting around the globe as a UN Ambassador or maintaining a high-profile relationship with Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie has been receiving praise for recent hits such as Changeling or Salt, while Johnny Depp has been entertaining audiences with offbeat characters like Captain Jack Sparrow of The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise or The Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland; together, these two would be virtually unstoppable. Despite the potential draw of this film, marketing for The Tourist was surprisingly mild, with early trailers simply identifying that Depp and Jolie would be in a film that involved a case of mistaken identity. Still, when you consider the sheer star-power of The Tourist, aggressive marketing wasn’t really necessary; fans of both celebrities would undoubtedly want to see them work together in this newest adventure. Obviously, my hopes were very high for The Tourist.
As a member of both Depp and Jolie’s monumentally large fan-base, I hate to admit that I was thoroughly disappointed in The Tourist, which is plagued by a ridiculous plot, boring action sequences and characters, and a spectacular case of miscasting. Granted, a plot involving mistaken identity is bound to be a little misleading, but I found myself rolling my eyes and shaking my head in disbelief at the uneven and ridiculous story that audiences were expected to swallow. And, for a film billed as a romantic thriller, some of the “action” sequences present were horribly yawn-inducing, with the lead characters being chased by an embarrassingly unthreatening villain. To be fair, Angelina Jolie does what she can with film, sizzling onscreen as a mysterious and hypnotic femme fatale, but Depp’s character is such a departure from his usual roles that his presence just comes across as awkward. Devoted fans can usually be pretty forgiving when their favorite star makes a bad film, but I doubt anyone would disagree that The Tourist represents a definite step backwards for these two Hollywood juggernauts.
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Overall Recommendation: Low
