My Movie Review on The Tourist (2010) · 4:23pm Feb 16th, 2020
Greetings, my good comrades.
This is your friendly film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another analysis.
Today, for my 116th film review and 8th installment of my "February Festivity", I'm gonna give you guys my take of one of the most underrated films I've ever seen: "The Tourist".
Here's the summary of it:
Elise Clifton-Ward is a beautiful British woman who has been constantly spied on by the police because of her connection to a fugitive named Alexander Pearce, who is also her boyfriend. She has tried to move on due to her and Alexander being unable to be together, yet she can't seem to escape her past.
Upon receiving a letter from Alexander, she is instructed to meet him in Italy and find someone of his height and build so that she could throw the police off. The person she finds that closely fits the description is a traveling math teacher from America named Frank Tupelo, who later accompanies her at her insistence.
As time goes by, though, the two of them develop an unexpected connection that makes them question whether they can live with or without one another. Along with that, they are not only being trailed by the police, headed by the arrogant Inspector John Acheson, but they are being hunted by a ruthless British gangster named Reginald Shaw, who holds a grudge against Alexander Pearce.
Will Frank and Elise ever come to terms with their love for one another despite the latter's connection to Alexander? Will Alexander even show himself?
Will their pursuers somehow catch the two of them?
In reference to the film's rather negative reputation, I'd like to start with the only setback I could find.
The only problem I found was that there were some cuss words that kinda ruined things a bit. I'm not just saying this out of my distaste for cussing, really, but out of the way those few words were used in the film.
Other than that, though, this was another movie with a reputation I can hardly understand! It's actually splendid.
The acting, casting, characters, and character development were among the elements I highly commend.
Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie were perfect for the parts of Frank and Elise, and while it wasn't flawless, the chemistry and romance between the two characters created marvelous spark. Likewise, Steven Berkoff made his character of Reginald Shaw an intimidating force to be reckoned with and incorporated a great sense of humor. Timothy Dalton made nice use of his screen time and material as Chief Inspector Jones. And, Paul Bettany certainly knew how to wonderfully stand out as John Acheson despite his character not being the most likable.
To top it all off, each and every character had dynamic development and was pretty well-realized.
The direction by Florian Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck, and the screenplay by him, Christopher McQuarrie, and Julian Fellowes, was fun too.
True, the dialogue may not have been the best, but it was still creative and there were tons of entertaining one-liners. Plus, there was brilliant humor, suspense and thrills, and the romance between Frank and Elise gave the film heart. There's also a twist at the end of the movie that I thought was marvelously done and executed. I won't be revealing what it is because I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that I enjoyed it more than the one in "Now You See Me" (which I apologize for not reviewing yet).
Finally, the music that was composed by James Newton Howard was enjoyable beyond compare.
As with every movie I've seen that he's composed for, I loved how he emotionally invested himself into his score, which helped it be compelling in any given moment. I particularly enjoyed how the music reflected the emotions of the characters.
In conclusion, "The Tourist" isn't perfect, but it's a movie that I find to be extremely underrated and should be given a chance to prove itself.
So, I rate "The Tourist" 4½ out of 5 stars.
Haven't seen this one yet. Might want to check it out.