The Tourist

UK Release: 10th December 2010

Watched on DVD: Monday 21st November 2011

Rating: 12A

Genre: Action, Mystery, Romance

Runtime: 1hr 43mins

Tagline: It all started when he met a woman.

IMDb Plot Synopsis: Elise (Angelina Jolie) sits next to an American tourist, Frank (Johnny Depp), on a train going to Venice. She has chosen him as a decoy, making believe that he is her lover who is wanted by police. Not only will they need to evade the police, but also the mobster whose money her lover stole.

My Review: Whilst being billed as a sort of thriller/action film I’d put this as more of a romantic comedy, with emphasis on the comedy. It didn’t have an ounce of darkness to it, and if you know my film tastes by now I love me some dark, so while it was a little disappointing in that department, the comedy from Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie (but that could have just been her posh english accent!) kind of made up for it.

It was Hollywood all over and one of the most glamourous films I’ve seen in a while looking pretty gorgeous in the lovely Venice. Unfortunately it could have been a little too Hollywood for me, but enjoyable enough. 

The film rests on being clever and while it’s not intellectually clever and just ‘murder mystery’ clever it kept you interested as you wanted to find out what on earth was going on. It was, however, a tad predictable and unrealistic, but that isn’t the point of The Tourist: it’s a bit of escapist fun. It may of been too try hard and cheesy at times, it still had elements of a classic Hollywood escapade, which haven’t been seen in a long while...

Score: 7.5/10