The Tourist (2010)

Better is a little with righteousness
than large income with injustice.
Proverbs 16:8

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who directed the wonderful The Lives of Others, must have wanted badly to direct an American movie to take on this piffle of a project. Maybe it was because he got to co- write it and direct two of the hottest stars around, Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. She plays Elise (Angelina Jolie), the girl friend of a thief whom she has not seen for two years. Because he stole three quarters of a billion dollars from an international gangster and stashed it away, he has been on the run. During this time he has obtained a thirty million dollar facelift, and now he wants to meet up in Venice where he has hidden the loot. Depp plays Frank, the tourist of the title whom Jolie picks up aboard a train bound for that city. He claims to be a college teacher touring Europe after a romantic break-up at home. Dogging their footsteps are two teams—of police and of gangsters, both groups hoping to find through Elise the thief and the cache of money.

The only two reasons to see this film (after it leaves the expensive first run theaters) is to watch an immaculately groomed Angela Jolie and the magnificent urban scenery of Venice. Oh yes, there is Johnny Depp, but he might as well have stayed on board his pirate ship for all the chemistry generated between him and his costar. There are the usual chases—over rooftops and through the canals, but little that you will remember a year from now