The Tourist

The Tourist

originally written by Jerome Salle as the foreign film "Anthony Zimmer." Rewritten by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Christopher McQuarrie and Julian Fellowes.

It may be obvious that I like to use images that aren't from the film. That's Johnny Depp who women find irresistible for some reason that escapes me. He always looks scruffy to me and I hate tattoos.

Florian HvD was the writer and director of the great film "The Lives of Others." This is his first film since then and for people who like characters rather than effects or stick figures pretending to be characters, this is a wonderful piece. I'll have to wait to see how closely it mirrors "Anthony Zimmer," to see how much original work they did, but whether it sticks closely to the original or is its own movie, creatively it's first rate. The big news of the day is that it's a box office bomb, but I think the word of mouth is going to be so good it will find its legs. The nonsense of opening weekend b.o. is just that: nonsense. Hollywood has so totally corrupted the industry (it was probably always corrupt anyway, so it's not a great loss), that it's no longer relevant whether or not the story and creativity is any good. It's simply that Angelina and Johnny didn't bring in the box office numbers they wanted.

And probably it's not true that there wasn't a time when the content of a film mattered more than it does today. I can think of lots of movies that were about something: great thoughtful ideas, or deep studies of character: The Godfather, Three Women, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Bonnie & Clyde. Entertainment doesn't have to be stupid, computer generated, or simply a tool of capitalism. It can be successful and smart.

I think that's what The Tourist ultimately is and I think the longer view of the box office will prove them wrong (not that it will change anything about the way Hollywood and the media cover movies). That it's written by foreigners and based on a foreign movie still proves the point that Hollywood writers write crap or at least that the better material rarely comes from that point on the globe.