spoiler review- 1 of 3

The Tourist

The film starts with the main character Elise being followed by the police who have spent years searching for her old lover Alexander Pearce, who owes 744 million in back taxes. At a cafe, Elise receives a note from Pearce instructing her to; board a train to venice, pick out a man who resembles him and make the police believe that this decoy is him, Elise then burns the note and evades the police and boards a train.






On the train, Elise picks out Frank Tupelo a community college teacher going to venice to get over an ex lover. They begin to spend a lot of time together and appear to create a romance. Elsie invites him to stay at her hotel room, the next morning she abandons Frank who is then chased by a group of gangsters who are also looking Pearce, whilst on the run Frank is picked up by the police who then take him in for his own safety on to have a corrupt police office turn him in to gangsters. Elise rescues Frank and sends him the the airport with his passport and money, urging him to leave for his own safety.


It is then revealed that Elise is in fact an agent from scotland yard who may have become Pearce's ally. She fears for Franks safety so therefore agrees to a sting operation. Elise later attends a ball where she assumes the real Pearce will be. An envelope is placed on the table in front of her and the man hastily walks away, she assumes that this is Pearce and promptly walks after him. On her pursuit Frank intersects her and declares his love for her. He is then hauled away by the police, Elise opens the envelope from Pearce to find a note mentioning rendezvous point, she heads off in boat to rendezvous point, but is tailed by the gangsters and closely followed by the police, who have Frank tied up in there boat to stop him from obstructing the investigation.

When Elise arrives at the hotel room she is taken prisoner by the gangsters who are demanding to know where the money that Pearce owes them is being kept. The police are monitoring the situation through audio and video that has been pre set up, despite Elises peril the office in charge refuses to take other offices advice to intervene with the snippers. Whilst the officers are monitoring the situation Frank finds a way to escape the police boat. He gets into the room and confronts the gangsters by telling them that he is Pearce the gangsters are sceptical and tell him if he really is Pearce he should open the safe, the chief inspector arrives on the boat and over rules the man in charge and tells the snipers to intervene, killing the gangsters.

The final scenes you see the police let Elise leave her job, and they think they have found the real Pearce but when they get to the scene and talk to him he is simply a tourist being payed to pretend to be him via an anonymous source. Back in the room Elise tells Frank that she loves him but also loves Pearce. Frank then walks over to the safe and enters the correct code, therefore revealing that he is in fact Pearce.

I have given this film three stars due to the fact that the film did not create much mystery or suspense throughout and mystery and suspense are the main qualities that a thriller should possess. Although I like the twists in the plot that the film threw up such as the fact the Elise was actually an agent and the answer to the enigma code, 'who is Pearce', was effect as you did not expect him to be Frank.