The Tourist

The Tourist is a lesson in how you can take a decent script, two of the world's biggest stars and a director whose last film (The Lives of Others) was simply brilliant and come up with not very much at all.

Angelina Jolie plays Elise Ward, who is being trailed by the police (Paul Bettany in particular) who are trying to track down her former lover, Alexander Pearce, who owes about £750 million in unpaid taxes after stealing billions from his gangster boss (Steven Berkoff). Matters are complicated by the fact that nobody seems to know what Alexander looks like following plastic surgery. Acting on instructions in a note from Alexander, Jolie joins up with a random tourist, Johnny Depp, on a train to Venice. There follows many twists and turns and much canal based action before the final act twist is revealed.

The script is smart enough and has some great lines. The plot is good enough for the type of fun action this aims to be, although there are undoubtedly holes if you stop and try and work out exactly what Alexander was actually planning from the start. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck handles the action sequences well and there's good use of the stylish Venice locations and the two major twists work more than they don't. Furthermore Bettany is good as the not so nice cop and Timothy Dalton even better as his boss.

So where does it go wrong? Berkoff makes for a bland villain where the film cries out for him to be chewing up the scenery. Jolie manages a perfect crisp English accent, but apparrently puts so much into it that she at times fails to act - we're used to much better from her. However the main problem is the complete and total lack of chemistry between Depp and Jolie. They are two of the most attractive and talented of the current A-list, but here they totally fail to spark off each other. Depp is good when by himself and has greater chemistry in the scenes he shares with Bettany than with Jolie. Unfortunately, ultimately the film stands or falls on the relationship between Depp and Jolie and thus it falls. The scenes between them feel flat and limp when the should zip with electricity and tension.

Things do pick up towards the end and the last act is engaging, but overall The Tourist leaves you with the feeling that it should be great entertainment, but is decidedly ordinary.

Overall - 6/10 Its not a bad film, but it should be so much better than it is. A damp squib of a movie sunk by a lack of chemistry.