The Tourist

JOHNNY Depp in Venice plus Angelina Jolie, in a tale of intrigue and mistaken identity: this should be a potent combination, but it turns out to be a fizzer.

Jolie plays glamorous Englishwoman Elise Clifton-Ward who is being pursued by the British police, Interpol and a disgruntled mobster (Steven Berkoff). They all hope she’ll lead them to her lover, elusive master-criminal Alexander Pearce, who has stolen a fortune from the gangster.

Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie in sluggish thriller The Tourist.

Acting under Pearce’s instructions, she takes a train to Venice and picks out a fall guy, hapless holidaying maths teacher Frank Tupelo (Depp), who is the same height and build as Pearce. She soon has him in thrall. It’s then cat and mouse on the canals, as a bewildered Frank tries to figure out what’s going on, and a dogged British cop (Paul Bettany) is one step behind.

But The Tourist, despite a star cast, some high-profile scriptwriting credits (among them Christopher McQuarrie of The Usual Suspects and Julian Fellowes of Gosford Park) and a prime location, is a severe disappointment. Director and co-writer Florian Henckel von Donnersmark (The Lives of Others) maintains a sluggish pace; Jolie – with a painstaking English accent, a stiff upper lip and stylish outfits – could be auditioning for Thunderbirds; Depp is a mixture of winsome and lacklustre; Berkoff is about as threatening as a hamster; and the whole thing feels preposterous in a dull way.