I’m not much of an Angelina Jolie fan though I did think Mr and Mrs Smith was a lot of brainless fun. I am a bit of a Johnny Depp fan so I make an effort to see everything that he makes. I had seen previews of The Tourist and figured I would see it but I wasn’t frothing at the mouth to get to the theater. My wife and I recently watched this and I was quite letdown by it.
Let’s start with the bad –
Parts of the movie, specifically some of the stunts were filmed on a soundstage. A cheap soundstage. The quality difference isglaringly obvious to anyone with a brain.
The blue screen backgrounds of Venice just don’t work. I think they spent all the money on Jolie and Depp and used a cheap FX company for these shots.
The movie just feels cheap all the way through.
Paul Bettany, who is usually quite good can’t seem to pull off the Inspector Acheson character
well. He underplays the characters obsession with catching the villain. I think this is more the direction Bettany was taking than his ability.
On with the good –
The gangster Reginald Shaw had some great scenes and dialogue and was well played by Steven Berkoff. Timothy Dalton’s appearance as Inspector Jones was pretty good. I didn’t care for him as James Bond but in these smaller roles he really shines.
The slow motion climax scene was well done. This is about the only really great scene in the whole film. Berkoff steals the scene with his great portrayal and dialogue from Jolie and Depp which sets up a slow motion action scene with snipers.
Final Words
I think the director really just missed the mark with the material and actors. The film just falls
flat all over the place and never really gets going from the beginning. It’s like the director was trying to invent a new European-Romance-Crime-Noir genre. It’s more of a train wreck than noir film of any kind.
1 out of 5 stars – Paul’s Scale
The wife's verdict - "It was ok."
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