The Invisible Counterpoint

The Tourist is one of those movies that will leave some viewers scratching their heads, wondering why there isn’t more action, more snazzy editing, more obvious crackle between its stars, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. But I suspect the people who get The Tourist will simply adore it: It’s the kind of espionage caper that doesn’t get made anymore, a visually sensuous picture made with tender attention to detail and an elegant, understated sense of humor. (Stephanie Zacharek, Espionage Caper The Tourist Offers Mystery and Glamour, Plus Depp and Jolie, “Movieline,” 9 Dec. 2010) KEY SPOILER ALERT (First consideration) She is really good and appropriate in this picture. Something about how Angelina refuses the viewer, and her spare personality, works to remind you to attend to everything else perfectly worthwhile in the picture. Elegance, a sure splendor of it -- it's hard to imagine anything making an appearance in the film that wasn't (as Stephanie says, tenderly a...

Probably right to ease off of Britney and Lindsay, but your impluse to go after Angelina is sound. I agree with you that though Angelina could readily be characterized as monster-superior, the press has wanted to imagine her more as MOTHER-superior. The reason for this, I think, is that the many of us who were born of mothers who used us as little playthings to ward off depression, and who interpreted our emerging desire to attend to our own needs rather than their own, as treachery, see in Angelina some version of the mother who must be praised and placated -- or else! Did you know that there are cultures which encourage their kids to play with knives. Not for their own good -- Angelina's purported motivation -- but because kids aren't valued all that much once they focus on their own independence. Take New Guinea parenting, for instance: "There are many ways New Guinea parents demonstrate that when the child cannot be used erotically, it is useless. One is that a...