The Tourist is something of an enigma. This is only German writer/director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s second film. The first was The Lives of Others, an extraordinary marvel set in the tyrannical former East Germany (it won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film) and certainly one of the most impressive debut films I’ve ever seen. The last thing one would expect from the creative force behind such a film is a breezy spy caper like The Tourist. Sure, von Donnersmarck is allowed to have both a serious and a frothy side, but there is the feeling that he has not quite earned the liberty yet; that he needs a few more mature films under his belt before he can earn the right to say, “Time to do something fun and forgettable.”

So many foreign directors complete masterful films in their own countries, only to be given the reigns of expensive American projects that ultimately implode. For every Billy Wilder, Ang Lee and Alfonso Cuaron, there is a Wong Kar Wai or Oliver Hirschbiegel who is unable to make the Hollywood transition. And The Tourist? Von Donnersmarck’s sophomore entry is implausible and completely ridiculous, but mostly delightfully so. To enjoy this one, it is best to turn off your believability meter and at least one hemisphere of your brain.

Johnny Depp plays Frank, an American who unexpectedly meets Elise (Angelina Jolie), an astonishingly beautiful woman who drags him into a web of intrigue, danger and romance while vacationing in Venice. This seemingly random encounter gives birth to a cat and mouse game involving stolen money, Scotland Yard, Russian mobsters and one very confused tourist.

The Tourist has Hitchcock written all over it, from encounters with striking, mysterious women on trains to dangerous cases of mistaken identity. I found myself constantly vacillating between North by Northwest and To Catch a Thief. This isn’t to say that The Tourist lives up to that prestigious pedigree, nor, it must be said, does it truly aspire to. The Tourist is Hitch-lite, the Diet Coke of Hitchcock, the master’s tropes transformed into something fun and playful (so much so, in fact, that the over-the-top and often clumsy Keystone cop comedy sometime undermines rather than fortifies our amusement).

The Tourist certainly makes the most of its ethereal setting. Director Rian Johnson once told me that he set his most recent film, The Brothers Bloom, in Prague because it was a city he’d always wanted to visit. Whether or not von Donnersmarck has ever visited Venice before is unclear and frankly irrelevant, but it certainly follows the same formula. Write where you want to shoot.

Initially, and indeed for most of its running time, Depp appears woefully miscast. He has spent so much of his career playing colorful, eccentric characters, that it is exceedingly difficult to see him as a straight man. His inclusion in the film only begins to make sense in the final minutes of the film. For her part, Jolie is hypnotically beautiful; she has never looked more alluring. Too bad the two of them have absolutely zero chemistry.

All in all, The Tourist is fun but instantly forgettable, a cheerful retreat from a yet-unproduced body of serious work. As the closing credits begin to roll, I found myself wanting to say, “That’s nice Florian. Isn’t that cute. Now put away your toys and get back to work.”

© Copyright 2010 Brandon Fibbs. All rights reserved.

Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Starring: Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Paul Bettany, Timothy Dalton, Rufus Sewell
Rated PG-13 for violence and brief strong language.
Running Time: 104 minutes