The Tourist: Film Review

With so much star appeal coupled with a blockbuster trailer, one would have been compelling enough to believe that The Tourist is one of those good movies with an ecstatic thriller plot and a star-studded cast, all set in beautiful Venice.

But trust me, The Tourist, like Life As We Know It, makes no effort in disappointing fans, all the more if you were an avid Angelina Jolie follower or a desperate Johnny Depp fan girl.

Somehow, every time a plan of watching a certain film showing in SM City Iloilo Cinema pushes through, it would almost always be likely dichotomous, either that it would turn out to be a good film or a bad one. And definitely, The Tourist is, with all decent vocabularies, a failure in all aspects, except for Angelina Jolie's make-up.

First and foremost, the plot of the film mixes superficiality and a wrong strategy of fooling people into thinking that the storyline is deep and confusing. Well in terms of confusion, it was, especially in the ending, where math teacher Frank Tupelo (Depp) was revealed to be Alexander Pearce, the main mystery man of the film. Instead of having to succumb the big twist, I found myself in a mental daze, thinking: What the fuck? I was referring to the scene (before the revelation) wherein Angelina Jolie mouths the words 'I love you' to Depp while they were in a marginally fatal situation of nearly getting killed by the villainous Reginald Shaw (Steven Berkoff). Worse, the scene was played in slow motion.

Despite the fact that Jolie's character, Elise Clifton-Ward, was remarkably captivating, the high level of elegance she exudes with every pace and stance matches the degree of failure her character has contributed to the film, which also includes the scene where Jolie enters dramatically to rescue Depp, being dressed inappropriately (a fancy hooded cape) while driving a speed boat in the midnight Venetian canals. And with that, I personally admit that Angelina Jolie truly deserved to be nominated for Best Actress Comedy in the Golden Globes.

Overall, I didn't appreciate the film. It was generally tacky, the plot very unripe, slow and morbidly shallow with no conviction, and there was an evident lack of chemistry between the two lead actors. The only positive concept within the film was strictly limited to Angelina Jolie's hair, make-up and wardrobe. But her flaccid English accent seemed to convey that Angelina Jolie's role was no more but an exotic British femme walking around Venice as if she were in a perfume commercial.

As for Johnny Depp, his performance was direly good, but not engaging nor eccentrically pleasing--or simply, an ill-fitted role. But everyone who agrees with me is certain that it was one of his most poorly receptive and negatively critiqued roles in film history.