The Tourist

THE TOURIST (2010) - July 13, 2011
Though it's a pretty humongous step down from the Lives of Others, this was still an entertaining enough thriller from Florian Henckel von Donnersmark.  About an American math teacher, on vacation in Europe, who finds himself embroiled in some shenanigans involving a mistaken identity and billions in stolen money.  The movie kind of drags in the uneventful first half hour or so; it picks up once the action starts kicking in, though it's never as interesting or exciting as it thinks it is.  It seems like Donnersmark is going for a fun, Hitchcockian-style wrong man thriller, though it never quite gets there.  There's just something off about it -- Donnersmark's direction is solid, and the performances are fine (I'm kind of off Johnny Depp these days, and Angelina Jolie had the same smug expression on her face for pretty much the entire film, but they were both fine), so... yeah.  Not sure what went wrong.  **1/2