The Tourist

A schoolteacher from Wisconsin named Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp) meets a mysterious and beautiful woman on a train (Angelina Jolie) and immediately becomes the target for Scotland Yard and a cadre of gangsters who think Frank is the elusive thief known as Alexander Peirce. Same a misterious the story later, the film also opens with a mysterious woman who suddenly sit in front of Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp), an American tourist, on a train destination Venice, Italy. The woman finally introduce ourselves as Elise Ward (Angelina Jolie) to the man before him who it later emerged was a mathematics teacher, well away from what he imagined Frank Elise if you see a more visible figure as wealthy rock musicians and lovers of espionage novels who is on vacation .

The brief encounter was enough for the Elise in the end to make Frank's interested in him, who does not, Elise-elegantly dressed sexy is like a magnet that attracted the attention of the spy man whenever he passes in front of them. Frank who looked "innocent" and added he was like a tourist who looks dazed Elise finally accepted the invitation to participate with a boat that escorted her to a hotel where he stayed. Elise also finally took her to stay at the hotel with a claim to the receptionist if Frank was her husband.

The movie is in fact a remake of a little known French thriller from 2005 called "Anthony Zimmer," and yes, for those keeping track, this is the second American remake of a recent French thriller in the last month. Be as it may, the movie starts off well enough as we meet Jolie's Elise Clifton-Ward, a mysterious dragon lady who seems to be Scotland Yard's only connection to a wanted thief named Alexander Peirce.

As the story begins, she receives a message from the enigmatic man without a face to find a tourist to pretend to be him in order to throw the police off his track, but the gangster Peirce stole money from is also still looking for him. When Elise meets Depp's Frank Tupelo on a train, he seems like the perfect patsy, and the game of seduction and pursuit begins in earnest once all of the parties converge on Venice.

The biggest problem with "The Tourist" is that the superstar pairing have absolutely zero chemistry, so the very essence of what may have the film appealing to moviegoers--the thought of two mega-superstars getting romantic on screen--is completely absent. As often as the movie tries to capitalize on Jolie's looks, it doesn't quite have Depp's usual charm and personality. We've become so enured to seeing Johnny Depp playing wild over-the-top scenery-chewing characters that when he plays an average guy, it's quite boring because the character lacks all the charm and personality that makes Depp such a presence on screen.

In fact, while it's very easy to figure out what Frank sees in Elise, it's not quite clear what she sees in him because he's kind of a hapless schmoe who is way out of his league. The fact that a former James Bond like Timothy Dalton offers more charisma in his two or three brief appearances makes you realize why Depp might be better off sticking to the eccentric characters with wigs and prosthetics.

The minimal action isn't very impressive either, from Depp's character running across a rooftop in pajamas to a slow boat chase and other lame stunts that could have easily been handled by Depp without the need of a stunt double. Jolie doesn't get too involved in any of it except to steer the boat looking gorgeous during the chase. It's disappointing that we see none of the fierceness she's displayed in "Salt" and "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," instead glamming it up with a number of costume changes and turning into the "damsel in distress" character that should be below her.

The script, which includes contributions from two Oscar winners, is filled with so many movie clichés it's not particularly hard to figure out the "big twist" from the very get-go, but it's just more proof of the laziness involved in making an action thriller that doesn't stand up to other films in the genre. Still, one can't help but be impressed by marketing that makes the movie look fun and exciting, of which it is neither.