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The Tourist Review

December 10, 2010 by · Comments Off on The Tourist Review 

The Tourist Review, The script for the tourist is better than the script for Knight & Day, but both were completely workable ideas with scenarios completely feasible and each had two main stars who could absolutely respect the idea behind these movies … Retro Hitchcokian / Wilderian thrillers with a sense of humor and fun roles from their stars.

And both fail to offer because the two films chose the wrong director. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has done a great movie in the lives of others. It is intimate, elegant and demanding … not only the opposite of what the tourist is, but is the opposite of the intent of the tourist. It is palpable in the first scene … something is wrong … the movie is like watching a woman in a tight pencil skirt trying to crawl in the mud 2 feet while showing no sign of trouble on his face. What the hell are they doing? This is not Mission: Impossible (or salt). It’s not really a drama. And if it’s supposed to be mysterious, perhaps they needed to have something real to unravel. And Depp is … in a comedy. He and Jolie haaaaard work to try to make it work. But this great director … uh … how to say…

They had a romantic thriller that could have starred Cary Grant and Grace Kelly … light on its feet … ventilated … Funny … and they hired a German director!

With due respect to Germans who have a knack for light comedy … seriously … Mostly I liked Martha, but even the director would not be the right person for this material.

And Knight and Day? James Mangold has supplied almost all the big movie star he ever worked with. Appointments at the box office and good in every way. And K & Disaster D was not financially or creatively. But we had a light touch that the director of Walk the Line, Girl, Interrupted, Copland and not the good guys. I came to love and appreciate Mangold increasingly over the years. But funny? No.

It reminds you how good movies are tricky. And how really talented people can be just the wrong people for a particular project.

The script for the tourist is, I believe, better … but I think that Knight & Day is the best film. But the two films could well have been very fun for the audience … antics would be watched again and again … the kind of movies that make you smile – and stop – when the distant past on your cable / satellite when they get there, just for a moment, and then you slide

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