Usually when a movie is bad it’s easiest to blame the studio for whatever reason; they didn’t allow the director creative control, the budget was too small. Unfortunately for writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck this is simply not the case (on a side note, I think von Donnersmarck also wins the award for worst name in Hollywood). I was really excited about this movie, Angelina Jolie at one point or another was a respected actress and who doesn’t love Johnny Depp? It was a big let down when I finally watched it and as much as I didn’t want to admit it, it’s pretty bad.
The direction is terrible, I mean, it takes something special to make Johnny Depp look like a bad actor and von Donnersmarck has it. Set in Venice, it is clear that von Donnersmarck has seen "The Italian Job" and tries to imitate several sequences but he really did not capitalize on shooting his movie in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. But forget von Donnersmarck, every so often there is a writer-director that tries to be artsy but in reality is just supremely awful but somehow continues to make movies (Dito Montiel comes to mind as well) and there's nothing we can do about them. The real question is why Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie agreed ot be in this movie. Sometimes the paycheck is just that big, but generally Depp picks excellent movies and even his not so great choices (Charlie And The Chocolate Factory) turn out okay. Angelina Jolie I don't get. How can Brad Pitt be choosing movies as good as "The Tree of Life" and the forthcoming "Moneyball" while Jolie is starring in "The Tourist" and "Wanted"? Well, whatever I say isn't going to change her decisions, so let's just forget it. And let's just forget this movie ever happened, I think it's the best decision at this point.
