During an impromptu trip to Europe to mend a broken heart, Frank (Johnny Depp) unexpectedly finds himself in a flirtatious encounter with Elise (Angelina Jolie), an extraordinary woman who deliberately crosses his path. Against the breathtaking backdrop of Paris and Venice, their whirlwind romance quickly evolves as they find themselves unwittingly thrust into a deadly game of cat and mouse.
The Tourist is a pretty film, but it has some severe storytelling issues. One of the biggest complaints about the film amongst other critics is how uneven the story is and how the set up is very time consuming to the point where the audience might actually get ‘bored’; I completely agree with this sentiment. It took nearly an hour for the film to set-up the main plot points. Getting Jolie’s Elise to become a ‘suspect’ with British Intelligence and Italian Intelligence was easy-peasy. Establishing a third mysterious character and a Russian group of killers was mind numbing. Adding Johnny Depp to the mix seemed awkward and out of place, despite the ‘surprise’ ending. The story just had too much set up and not enough conclusion. It was like having a two-mile hill to climb on a rollercoaster before you even sniff the first big drop. Even when the drop finally happens you don’t feel particularly overwhelmed because you forgot why you cared about the main characters. Does the action help? It helps, but even that is sort of dry and campy at times. Overall, the story should have been revised and balanced out a bit more. Heck, they could have established the characters at the beginning, gone into the meeting and then brought everyone else in quickly and that probably would have worked better. The story just ultimately drags like it’s trying to run through a pile of mud and at the end of it all you realize that the trip simply wasn’t worth the effort.
With that said, Jolie and Depp should do more films together. As much as I don’t like Jolie, mainly because she seems to accept subpar roles when she could have so much better (see Changeling for a good example of her best acting), she has great chemistry with Johnny Depp. I didn’t buy into trailer when I first heard about this film because I couldn’t put them together, but they play off each other quite smoothly. His innocent, suave attitude and her enticing, mysterious persona just fit snuggly together like two perfect LEGO pieces. They are the reason this movie is tolerable and they pretty much keep it from becoming an absolutely bore. Whoever cast them in these respective roles deserves a Golden Globe (as do the two actors).
Anyway, the locations in the film are gorgeous, the acting is great, but it’s all ruined by a very drab, dull storyline that never quite picks up like it should. The fact that it’s also completely imbalanced makes the situation even worse.
With that said, the film looks positively stunning in Blu-ray. Thanks to the locations and to some pretty hot actors (Jolie and Depp), you’ll get a wonderful healthy dose of 1080p that is worth you visual attention. On top of this, since it is an action film, you also get some great audio mastered in 5.1 Dolby Digital. I’ve always said that the best genres for perfect sound are horror and action, and this is no different. The Tourist excels in this category and will make anyone with a 5.1 or 7.1 setup completely happy.
As for special features, here’s what you’re looking at:
(Blu-ray only)
– Action in Venice
– Tourist Destination
– Canal Chats
(DVD and Blu-ray)
– Outtake Reel
– Alternate Animated Title Sequence
– Director Commentary
– A Gala Affair
– Bringing Glamour Back
For a movie that has been so darned mixed when it came to reviews I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of quality features. You’ll get some great insight on the action in Venice, some funny outtakes (I love outtakes on movies, as it shows just how much fun people had making the films) and some solid commentary. The other features are very good and completely add to the experience. In some ways the features were better than the ‘actual’ feature. Anyway, it’s a great set of features for this Blu-ray.
