Rental Movie Review: The Tourist

            *Rental Movie Review: The Tourist

            This was an action/adventure/spy movie with a sense of humor, at times making fun of such stories that become popular books that are almost inevitably interpreted into the big screen.

            You might think that with that idea, and with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp to boot, this movie might pull it off and be very good, and at least entertaining. Yet, something is missing, it seems.

While this movie did have it's moments, it seemed, for the most part, a bit slow. There was humor in it at times, and there was adventure as well, at other times. Sometimes, both at the same time.

However, the storyline really just seems to take too long to get along, and the fact that the movie makes fun of the clichéd nature of these movies makes it all the more glaring that this movie itself seems to use every cliché in the book. You can say it is risqué, and it would appear to have some validity. Yet, this ultimately is a spy movie, and as such, it is in fact rather predictable.

Johnny Depp's character is named Frank Tupelo, a math teacher trying to enjoy a vacation in Europe. He seems a quiet, unassuming man, who tries his best when a very attractive woman, Elise Clifton-Ward, played by Jolie, picks him to essentially distract the secret team that is relentlessly following her, in order to try and find their most wanted man – her former lover.

What ensues is a wild chase and classic misdirection, with Elise managing to get the space that she requires by utilizing Frank as a distraction. Frank finds himself suddenly in the middle of a very tough situation, being pursued by unknown, armed men with bad intentions, and suddenly finding himself being mistaken for a wanted man.

This movie, predictably, goes full circle as well, although I do not want to give away the ending, just in case you, the reader, should find yourself watching this movie. I don't want to play spoiler, and maybe you will get more out of this movie than I did. It just seemed to formulaic. Even when they were trying to be witty and make fun of clichés, it never fully succeeded in making fun of the genre like, say, the Scream movies made fun of their genre.

Again, Jolie and Depp do a good job with their acting, and usually, they are enough to at least salvage their roles. Yet, this movie was not really convincing enough to allow me to escape. So what I saw on the screen in front of me was not a story unfolding, but a movie that had seemed curiously appealing but seemed to slow to pick up speed and never really took flight. Thus, it was hard not to see Angelina Jolie the movie star, rather than whoever it was that she was supposed to be playing. Ditto with Johnny Depp, who's character seemed difficult enough to ascertain to begin with. He did the most with what was available, but this movie just really did not work too well. It was not nearly as exciting, as sexy, as vibrant, and just downright fun, as one might assume a movie like this should, or at least could, be.

The scenery was wonderful. It all takes place in Europe, and in that regard, it has some wonderful shots in truly beautiful locales, particularly in Venice, where the bulk of it takes place.

I do not mean to say that this was a horrible movie that should be avoided at all costs. Again, it had it's moments. Still, it is much slower than I expected it to be, which seemed unfortunate. It was a relatively short movie, but it somehow felt much longer to me. Overall, this one just was not a winner.