'The Tourist': A mindlessly enjoyable trip

REVIEW

There are all the obligatory chases and shootouts you'd expect in a romantic action caper, but you never get the sense that anyone's in real danger. There are twists, but they won't make you think too terribly hard, and in the end you will have devoted fewer than two hours of your life to a decent diversion.

Watching Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie bounce off each other isn't torture. Pretty people went to Venice and made a pretty movie. Joining them won't be thoroughly satisfying, but it won't kill you, either.

It's probably also best not to let the esteemed pedigree of the people behind the movie trick you into expecting something way more substantive or meaningful than you're going to get. 'The Tourist' is the first Hollywood film from director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, whose debut, the excellent German film 'The Lives of Others', won the foreign-language Oscar in 2007. It comes from a script that's credited to Henckel von Donnersmarck, Christopher McQuarrie ('The Usual Suspects') and Julian Fellowes ('Gosford Park'). Cinematographer John Seale ('The English Patient') provides the scenic vistas and intimate views of the exquisite Jolie. Costume designer Colleen Atwood ('Chicago') dressed the gorgeous superstar.

These acclaimed talents -- Oscar winners, all -- have given us something unabashedly light, frothy and ridiculous -- almost knowingly preposterous. But still, fun, so if you feel like shutting your brain off for a little when there's so much heady awards bait out there, this isn't a horrible way to go.