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Ordinary guy Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp) has his life turned upside down by the fetching Elise Clifton-Ward (Angelina Jolie) in “The Tourist.” |
Call it “The Tourist” claptrap.
Here we have a romantic thriller that should have evoked comparisons with a classic Alfred Hitchcock film starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint or Grace Kelly.
It comes closer to a “Naked Gun” parody, except with all the fun sucked out of it and the pacing slowed to a funereal beat.
Nothing in this tepid and dishonest romantic thriller adds up to much, beyond an excuse for the cameras to linger over the surface beauty of its two major stars as they preen and pose instead of emote and relate to each other.
From the very beginning of its ludicrously overblown opening sequence, “The Tourist” telegraphs that we’re in for 104 minutes of visual sizzle and dramatic fizzle.
The beautiful and elegant Elise Clifton-Ward (Angelina Jolie) sits in a Parisian plaza, sipping tea, when a messenger gives her a letter that instructs her to board a train for Vienna. She rises and begins to walk, and an entire brigade of undercover cops who’ve had her under surveillance suddenly rushes and dashes to keep her in sight.
James Newton Howard’s music rising tensions fueled by percussive explosions furiously plays as Elise self-consciously strolls across the plaza as if she’s on a fashion runway.
She halts so the camera can drink in her beauty and we can admire her clothes.
The music hits a fever pitch of suspense! (Read more…)