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In six-part TV series The Tourist, Jamie Dornan joins a coterie of famous foreign actors who have been plonked in the thick of arid Australian land and left to fry in the sun for our dramatic amusement.

The Tourist review – Jamie Dornan is intense in explosively entertaining outback thriller

An Irishman wakes up in Australia with amnesia in this pulse-pounding series packed with humour and philosophical questions

F anging it down an outback road when he is rammed by a truck driver from hell, Jamie Dornan experiences a terrible accident that gives him amnesia – making him forget about all that bondage paraphernalia from Fifty Shades of Grey .

In the explosively entertaining six-part series The Tourist, created and written by Harry and Jack Williams, the Irish actor and former Hugo Boss and Calvin Klein studmuffin plays a louche loner who can’t remember who is he, what he is doing in Australia or why he appears to have “kill me” stamped figuratively speaking across his forehead.

Dornan joins a coterie of famous foreign actors who have been plonked in the thick of arid, unforgiving Australian land and left to fry in the sun for our dramatic amusement. See also: Gary Bond in Wake in Fright , who drank a lot of beer and went mad; Dennis Hopper in Mad Dog Morgan , who drank a lot of moonshine and went mad; Johnathon Schaech in Welcome to Woop Woop , who spent a lot of time with the locals and went mad; and soon to be Zac Efron in Gold, who, the trailer suggests, finds gold in them thar desert and then goes mad.

Come to think of it, Dornan’s character in The Tourist – billed as “The Man” – is pretty sane compared with these rather rabid fellows. He’s like Guy Pearce in Memento in that he’s determined but displaced (in this instance geographically as well as mentally) and constantly banging against the walls of his own mind. If the whole being rammed into near-oblivion wasn’t enough, “The Man” is also a mite concerned when, after meeting the friendly and charming Luci (Shalom Brune-Franklin) at a diner, there appears to be another (rather spectacular) attempt on his life.

The show’s central mystery has something to do with a man who has been buried alive and calls “The Man” from inside a barrel, begging to be found post-haste. Director Chris Sweeney (who helmed episodes one to three, with Daniel Nettheim steering the others) shoves a camera inside a tight coffin-esque space, evoking memories of Ryan Reynolds in Buried.

A big, beefy, cowboy shirt-wearing villain emerges in Billy (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), who whistles cheerfully but with absolute menace, his merry tune a harbinger of impending doom. In the series’ second half, Alex Dimitriades emerges as another prominent bad guy, hamming it up in super-villain style.

Jamie Dornan as ‘The Man’ with Luci (Shalom Brune-Franklin)

Certain characters aren’t who they say they are, though that does not apply to Helen Chambers – a fair dinkum what-you-see-is-what-you-get probationary constable battling with low self-esteem. She is superbly portrayed by Danielle Macdonald (who played the gossip columnist Lillian Roxon in I am Woman ), bringing loads of colour and detail to what could have been the simple sweet hick. Macdonald’s performance vividly contrasts with the rough and tough Dornan – also perfect in a high-intensity role as a man who is something of a blank slate, frightened by who he is or who he may be. There are philosophical questions about identity to ponder – if viewers pause for a breather and stop chewing their nails – including to what extent each of us are defined by our past actions.

There’s also an oddly good performance from the ever-reliable Damon Herriman, offsetting his recent menacing work by playing a detective inspector in a way that’s both funny weird and funny ha-ha, suiting the show’s quite dry approach to comedy. Many scenes are humorous in a cagey way, sans explicit signposting: at one point for instance we discover a traffic pile-up has been created by two turtles rooting in the middle of the road. Elsewhere, in the aftermath of an intense confrontation, in a shot one could imagine belonging to a Coen brothers movie, the show cuts to a framed picture on a wall bearing the following message: “LIFE IS MADE OF CHOICES. WIPE YOUR FEET OR SCRUB THE FLOOR.”

Damon Herriman as Detective Inspector Lachlan Rogers.

The Tourist is very well shot by Ben Wheeler and Geoffrey Hall (who was also the cinematographer for Chopper , Red Dog: True Blue and Eden ), with colour grading that’s a little off, a little sickly, as if the blues and greens (hard to find in arid outback) in particular have been poisoned from the inside. This is a clever way of visualising the feeling that something isn’t quite right. Sweeney and Nettheim (whose directorial work includes episodes of Halifax: Retribution , Tidelands and Line of Duty) establish a cracker pace that creeps, creeps, creeps up on you, then explodes with a great big thunderclap of action then creeps, creeps, creeps up again.

The “bugger me dead, it’s hot!” action-thriller, as it shall henceforth be known, is by now very familiar, but The Tourist is different: a pulse-pounder that feels fresh despite many genre elements, particularly of the neo-noir variety. The show has a great forwards and backwards momentum, contrasting cliffhanger moments with questions about the past and the ambiguities therein. It’s a vision of Australiana that’s less “ where the bloody hell are you? ” than who the bloody hell are you, and what the bloody hell will happen next? And – summarising my personal response – bloody hell, this is good.

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Jamie Dornan

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Review: 'The Tourist' is a ferocious thriller that relentlessly keeps you hanging on

Talk about a binge watch! “The Tourist,” on HBO Max in a blast of six, one-hour episodes, is a ferocious thriller that’s also ferociously funny. Starring Jamie Dornan as an Irishman suffering amnesia in the Australian outback, the series is—to recoin a phrase—must-see TV.

The plot kicks in hard in Episode 1 as Dornan drives down a dusty road with a monster truck on his tail. Waking up battered and bruised in a hospital, he can’t even remember his name. Known only as “The Man” until the end of Episode 2, The Man—like Guy Pearce in “Memento”— must put together the puzzle of his life with crucial pieces missing.

“The Tourist” relentlessly keeps you hanging on. In the book world, they’d call it unputdownable. Each episode of the script by Jack and Harry Williams (“The Missing”) ends in a cliffhanger that whips you into the next episode. Forget about sleep.

It’s clear that Chris Sweeney (who directed episodes one to three) and Daniel Nettheim (who helmed the other half) have seen a lot of Coen brothers movies, especially “Fargo” and “Raising Arizona” with their deliciously deadpan blend of mirth and menace. If you’re going to borrow inspiration, why not swipe from the best.

MORE: Review: 'Licorice Pizza' one of the best films of the year

And Dornan, free from the cartoonish excess of the “Fifty Shades of Gray” trilogy, carries the whole thing with his starshine and burgeoning talent as an actor in “The Fall” and “Belfast.” Dornan is so good, you’ll follow him anywhere, which is just what “The Tourist” needs.

Dornan finds a perfect partner in Aussie dynamo Danielle Macdonald as Helen Chambers, a traffic cop with ambitions to rise in the ranks. The sweetness of Macdonald’s funny, touching and vital performance brings a nurturing humanity to the evil-doings surrounding her.

Can the diet-obsessed Helen, stuck with a controlling fiancée (Greg Larsen), discover herself by helping The Man recover his memory? Their attraction, repped by a burrito emoji, brings heart to a series that aims to blow the doors off with shocks and exploding violence.

For instance, there’s the dude who keeps calling The Man while buried alive in a secret grave? And why does the detective inspector, played to the hilt by Damon Herriman, seem less reliable than the gangsters and drug dealers who occupy the periphery of the episodes?

MORE: Review: 'The Tender Bar' deals a winning hand

Truly terrifying is the best way to describe Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Billy, the hulking American cowboy who drove The Man off the road and yet keeps comparing everyone he meets to his beloved mother. The scene between Billy and Helen will have you biting your nails to the quick.

And what of Shalom Brune-Franklin (“Line of Duty”) as Luci, the flirt who meets The Man at a diner that explodes minutes after they leave it. Luci volunteers to help The Man chase down his past. Or is she hiding something. Hint: Everyone in “The Tourist” is hiding something.

There’s no way I’ll spoil the fun by telling you who’s hiding what. Packed with high-voltage suspense and twists you don’t see coming, “The Tourist” also poses tangled questions about the nature of identify. You can tell The Man is afraid of what he might learn about himself.

Put yourself in his place, which is exactly what “The Tourist” wants you do. It’s one of the reasons this thrill-a-minute series has the staying power to haunt your dreams. The final episode is open-ended enough to suggest there might be a Season 2. Count me in.

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The Tourist

2010, Mystery & thriller/Action, 1h 39m

What to know

Critics Consensus

The scenery and the stars are undeniably beautiful, but they can't make up for The Tourist 's slow, muddled plot, or the lack of chemistry between Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. Read critic reviews

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The tourist photos.

During an impromptu trip to Europe to mend a broken heart, math teacher Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp) finds himself in an extraordinary situation when an alluring stranger, Elise (Angelina Jolie), places herself in his path. Their seemingly innocent flirtation turns into a dangerous game of cat and mouse while various people, who all think that Frank is Elise's thieving paramour, Alexander Pearce, try to capture the pair.

Rating: PG-13 (Violence|Brief Strong Language)

Genre: Mystery & thriller, Action, Romance

Original Language: English

Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Producer: Graham King , Tim Headington , Roger Birnbaum , Gary Barber , Jonathan Glickman

Writer: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck , Christopher McQuarrie , Julian Fellowes

Release Date (Theaters): Dec 10, 2010 wide

Release Date (Streaming): Mar 5, 2014

Box Office (Gross USA): $67.6M

Runtime: 1h 39m

Distributor: Sony Pictures

Production Co: GK Films, Birnbaum/Barber

Sound Mix: SDDS, Dolby Digital, DTS

Cast & Crew

Johnny Depp

Frank Tupelo

Angelina Jolie

Elise Clifton-Ward

Paul Bettany

Inspector John Acheson

Timothy Dalton

Chief Inspector Jones

Steven Berkoff

Reginald Shaw

Rufus Sewell

The Englishman

Christian De Sica

Colonnello Lombardi

Alessio Boni

Sergente Cerato

Daniele Pecci

Tenente Narduzzi

Giovanni Guidelli

Tenente Tommassini

Conte Filippo Gaggia

Bruno Wolkowitch

Capitaine Courson

Marc Ruchmann

Brigadier Kaiser

Julien Baumgartner

Brigadier Ricuort

François Vincentelli

Brigadier Marion

Clément Sibony

Brigadier Rousseau

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Screenwriter

Christopher McQuarrie

Julian Fellowes

Graham King

Tim Headington

Roger Birnbaum

Gary Barber

Jonathan Glickman

Lloyd Phillips

Executive Producer

Bahman Naraghi

Olivier Courson

Ron Halpern

Cinematographer

Production Design

Joe Hutshing

Film Editing

Patricia Rommel

James Newton Howard

Original Music

Colleen Atwood

Costume Design

Béatrice Kruger

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Critic Reviews for The Tourist

Audience reviews for the tourist.

The plot doesn't make sense, but the scenery is nice to look at.

The Tourist is an exotic espionage thriller that's quite fun and entertaining. While on vacation in Venice, Frank Tupelo is mistaken for a mobster named Alexander Pearce when he's picked up by Pearce's mistress, and ends up on the run from gangsters and Scotland Yard. Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, and Paul Bettany form a solid cast and deliver great performances. There's a certain charm to the story, and it's able to be clever and intriguing as the events unfold. Additionally, the film is directed well, with a smart pace and beautiful locations. Some parts may seem formulaic, but The Tourist is a sleek and enjoyable film.

Like any very attractive woman, Elise Ward(Angelina Jolie) has more than her share of admirers. But in her case, it is professional, with the police wanting to know the whereabouts of her lover, Alexander Pearce. She doesn't know either but a note delivered at a Paris cafe, telling her to catch a train to Venice, provides clues. In the confusion, she gets away while all Inspector John Acheson(Paul Bettany) has to show for his efforts is one rather confused waiter which does not make Chief Inspector Jones(Timothy Dalton) happy in the least. The other part of the instructions call for her to pick a random stranger on the train to sit next to which turns out to be Frank Tupelo(Johnny Depp), a schoolteacher from Wisconsin, who is also flattered at the attention. Now, if the cops were the only people out to get Pearce... I'm not disappointed that Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck chose a lightweight project to follow up his first film, "The Lives of Others," with. Rather, what I find especially disappointing about his second film "The Tourist" is how lacking in suspense it is, when in his first film, he showed a particular skill at creating suspense out of the most mundane moments, some of which involving typewriters. And Angelina Jolie does not command the room the way a beautiful woman should. That leaves it up to Johnny Depp to take "The Tourist" on his shoulders and run with it which is just enough for some of us most days, even with the possibility that none of this makes a lick of sense.

"The Tourist" is a very poor movie. Of course, it represents Hollywood at it's worst. The movie was never intended to have any value. It's sole purpose was to cash in on the star power of Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. There is no way that this script would have been brought to life without those names attached. "The Tourist" is as lazy as film-making gets. It's slow, uninspired, predictable, and downright annoying. Speaking of the attached star power, this is just a phoned in performance by Depp and Jolie. They play the same roles that they always do. Brace yourself for this one, Angelina Jolie is engaging in espionage! But isn't Jolie a spy in every one of her movies? Strangely enough, with as much practice as she gets in these roles, she never turns in a believable performance. When Johnny Depp isn't trying, he normally portrays a quirky character that ends up in-over-his-head, and that's exactly what you get here. It's astonishing that nobody figured out that thrusting Depp and Jolie into their comfort zones would result in zero chemistry. Then again, you have to remind yourself that nobody making the movie cared if it was entertaining. Then it all makes sense. "The Tourist" is generic garbage, that I strongly urge you to avoid. If you're a die-hard fan of Johnny Depp or Angelina Jolie, you have to start watching better movies.

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Jamie dornan in hbo max’s ‘the tourist’: tv review.

The actor plays an amnesiac in a deadly race to figure out his identity in this six-hour slice of Australian pulp fiction.

By Daniel Fienberg

Daniel Fienberg

Chief Television Critic

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Content bloat on cable and streaming is such an apparently incurable epidemic that even shows that play as lean and mean genre exercises are stuck oozing outside of their deserved boundaries — as if once there’s no marketplace for an idea to be conveyed at 90 minutes, might as well just go forever.

Something like Netflix’s True Story , which would have been an arthouse hit as a brisk John Dahl-directed theatrical thriller, instead became an instantly forgotten Netflix series, because that’s how it could get produced. Significantly better on every level, but still in need of a robust trim, is HBO Max ‘s The Tourist . Ideally, this would have been an Outback-set B-movie probably helmed by somebody like Phillip Noyce. Instead, it arrives on streaming as a six-hour drama replete with illogical misdirects, a second half that’s far less engaging than the first and a disappointing assortment of false conclusions.

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There’s a way to make a movie like "The Tourist," but Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck doesn’t find that way. Here is a romantic comedy crossed with a crime thriller, shot in Paris and Venice, involving a glamorous mystery woman and a math teacher from Wisconsin. The plot is preposterous. So what you need is a movie that floats with bemusement above the cockamamie, and actors who tease each other.

As the mystery woman, Angelina Jolie does her darnedest. She gets the joke. Here is a movie in which she begins in a Paris cafe, eludes cops by dashing into the Metro, takes an overnight train to Venice, picks up a strange man ( Johnny Depp ) and checks them both into the Royal Danelli without one wrinkle on her dress or one hair out of place. And is sexy as hell. This is the Audrey Hepburn or Grace Kelly role, and she knows it.

Depp is in the Cary Grant role of the obliging, love-struck straight man who finds himself neck deep in somebody else’s troubles. In theory, these two should engage in witty flirtation and droll understatement. In practice, no one seems to have alerted Depp that the movie is a farce. I refer to farce in the dictionary sense, of course: a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations. Depp, however, plays his math teacher seriously and with a touch of the morose.

The plot involves — oh, hell, you know, the usual mystery man who has stolen millions from a gangster and gone into hiding while smuggling instructions to Jolie, his lover, instructing her to take the train to Venice, etc. And the cops from Scotland Yard who are tailing her in hopes of nailing the guy. And the gangster and his hit men who are also on the thief’s trail. And chases over the rooftops of Venice, dinner on a train, a scene in a casino, designer gowns and a chase through the canals with Jolie at the controls of a motor taxi, and...

Well, there was really only one cliche left, and I was grateful when it arrived. You know how a man in a high place will look down and see a canvas awning that might break his fall, and he jumps into it? Yep. And it’s shielding a fruit cart at the open-air market and he lands on the oranges and runs off, leaving the cart owner shaking his fist. This is a rare example of the Vertical Fruit Cart Scene, in which the cart is struck not from the side but from the top.

The supporting roles are filled by excellent actors, and it’s a sign of the movie’s haplessness that none of them make a mark. You have Paul Bettany and Timothy Dalton as cops, Steven Berkoff as the gangster and Rufus Sewell as "The Englishman," who must be important because he hangs around without any apparent purpose. Once in London, I saw Berkoff play a cockroach in his adaptation of Kafka’s "Metamorphosis." It might have helped if he’d tried the cockroach again.

A depressing element is how much talent "The Tourist" has behind the camera. Writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck made " The Lives of Others ," which won the 2007 Oscar for best foreign film. The screenplay is by Christopher McQuarrie (Oscar winner for " The Usual Suspects ") and Julian Fellowes (Oscar winner for " Gosford Park "), along with von Donnersmarck. It’s based on a French film written by Jerome Salle , which was nominated for a Cesar. All three "Tourist" writers seem to have used their awards as doorstops.

It doesn’t matter that the plot is absurd. That goes with the territory. But if it’s not going to be nonstop idiotic action, then the acting and dialogue need a little style and grace and kidding around. Jolie plays her femme fatale with flat-out, drop-dead sexuality. Depp plays his Wisconsin math teacher as a man waiting for the school bell to ring so he can go bowling. The other actors are concealed in the shadows of their archetypes. Cary Grant would have known how to treat a lady.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

The Tourist (2010)

Rated PG for violence and brief strong language

103 minutes

Angelina Jolie as Elise

Johnny Depp as Frank

Paul Bettany as Acheson

Timothy Dalton as Jones

Steven Berkoff as Ivan

Rufus Sewell as Englishman

Directed by

Florian Henckel
Christopher McQuarrie
Julian Fellowes

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The Tourist review: an effective outback thriller with dry humour

A man with a grubby appearance sits in the driver's seat of a car

Jamie Dornan is an amnesiac on the run in Stan exclusive The Tourist. Photo: A Two Brothers Pictures (an All3Media company)

A man (Jamie Dornan) wakes up with no memory of who or where he is. Which means that he also has no idea who is trying to kill him or why. It’s not the most original start to a story, but as hooks go it’s hard to beat. But The Tourist has another card to play before the plot kicks in: it’s set in the Outback, which means dust, heat, grotty toilets, surly shopkeepers and a road sign that – in a fun bit of foreshadowing – has been scratched into illegibility.

There’s also a killer truck, which is the kind of thing that makes any drama better, and when it runs our nameless lead off the road the resulting impact wipes his memory just when he needs it the most. As the audience, we’re left in pretty much the same place as him. Aside from a fondness for singing along to ‘Bette Davis Eyes’ and a surprising lack of surprise at being chased off the road and into the scrub by the aforementioned killer truck, we barely get to know him before there’s nothing there to know.

The Tourist writers Harry and Jack Williams were also behind UK series The Missing , Baptiste and Liar (this is a co-production between the BBC, HBO Max and Stan) so the propulsive start to this six part series shouldn’t be a surprise. This runs closer to traditional pulp than their usual murder dramas, at least at first. As the mystery progresses the police turn up to do some serious investigating – though against the bevy of colourful bad guys this show serves up, they might be a little outmatched (even if one of the cops is played by Damon Herriman).

Read: TV Review: Wolf Like Me lets the light in through the cracks

Amnesia thrillers usually feature a protagonist who might just be a better person now than they were when they had their memories intact, and so it proves to be here. His car crash only requires a minimal police presence in the shape of probationary constable Helen Chambers (Danielle Macdonald), who manages to come off as innocent but not stupid, despite letting our memoryless lead leave hospital for a lunch appointment he doesn’t remember (but has written down on a piece of notepaper). It wouldn’t be a thriller if lunch went as planned, though the scale of how badly it goes wrong is a sign that even when this is following the usual genre landmarks it still has a few surprises up its sleeve.

Future developments involve more sinister antics from the mysterious truck driver (played by Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, star of SBS’s Icelandic drama Trapped ), a variety of twists involving a body in a barrel (only he’s not dead), the gradual reveal of our hero’s past (seems he recently bought a stuffed koala) and perhaps most surprising after the breathless opening, a nicely dry sense of humour about things, even when those things involve attempted murder.

A Man In Dishevelled Clothing Sits Alone In An Empty Road

We’re all used to the Outback being populated with quirky, offbeat and often sinister characters, but The Tourist has the advantage of a): a quality cast all around (including Shalom Brune-Franklin as a helpful local waitress), and b): a fast moving story that uses the humour as seasoning rather than the whole meal. This can be very funny at times – a traffic jam caused by two turtles rooting in the middle of the road is an early highlight. But the focus remains the two-fold mystery: who exactly is our hero, and why does at least one somebody want him dead?

None of this would hold together without Dornan’s performance. Effortlessly moving between his character’s extremes, he’s convincing whether he’s cracking a joke or breaking down in tears. For a man with no idea who he is, deep down he seems to be a decent sort. Perhaps the biggest hook this series has is the threat that maybe this nice guy is a bastard after all.

4 Stars: ★★★★

THE TOURIST Australia/UK 2022 Writers: Harry Williams, Jack Williams Directors: Christopher Sweeney, Daniel Nettheim Starring: Jamie Dornan, Danielle Macdonald, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Damon Herriman, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson Producers: Harry Williams, Jack Williams, Christopher Sweeney, Christopher Arid, Lisa Scott A Two Brothers Pictures (an All3Media company) production for the BBC, in association with Highview Productions, All3Media International, the South Australian Film Corporation, HBO Max, Stan and ZDF 6 x 60 minute episodes Now showing on Stan

4 out of 5 stars

Anthony Morris

Anthony Morris is a freelance film and television writer. He’s been a regular contributor to The Big Issue, Empire Magazine, Junkee, Broadsheet, The Wheeler Centre and Forte Magazine, where he’s currently the film editor. Other publications he’s contributed to include Vice, The Vine, Kill Your Darlings (where he was their online film columnist), The Lifted Brow, Urban Walkabout and Spook Magazine. He’s the co-author of hit romantic comedy novel The Hot Guy, and he’s also written some short stories he’d rather you didn’t mention. You can follow him on Twitter @morrbeat and read some of his reviews on the blog It’s Better in the Dark.

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DVD & Streaming

The Tourist

Action/Adventure , Drama , Mystery/Suspense

Content Caution

In Theaters

December 10, 2010
Johnny Depp as Frank Tupelo; Angelina Jolie as Elise Clifton-Ward; Paul Bettany as Inspector John Acheson; Timothy Dalton as Chief Inspector Jones; Steven Berkoff as Reginald Shaw

Home Release Date

March 22, 2011
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Distributor

Sony Pictures

Movie Review

Travel guides—even the best of ’em—can’t tell you everything.

Oh, sure, they’re fine if you just want to know how many euros that bistro down the street will run you, or where the bus stops are, or whether you need to bring a pocketful of change for the nearest public toilet.

But they always miss the really important details.

For instance, let’s say you’re a nondescript, unmarried American male math teacher on a train to Venice for vacation: How should you react if a beautiful, mysterious woman sits down across from you and starts flexing her large, painted lips? Does your guidebook have that eventuality indexed somewhere?

And then, let’s say that once you reach Venice, the same beautiful, mysterious woman asks you to spend the night (on the couch) in her fabulous canal-side suite. How is a traveler to handle that? And where’s the advice for what to do the next day when, instead of finding that beautiful and mysterious woman waiting for you, you find a hot breakfast and a couple of men with guns? Does your guidebook tell you which way to run on page 79? Does it hint at whether you’re allowed to eat first or not on 218? Does it say how much of a tip you’re supposed to leave the gunmen on 344?

Frank Tupelo finds all of this out the hard way. Still wearing his pajamas, Frank does what most of us would do if we were suddenly confronted by two men who start shooting through the bathroom door: He panics. And he jumps out the window, leaping about the rooftops of Venice.

Positive Elements

His guidebook doesn’t tell him to, but Frank still falls head over heels for Elise, the enigmatic stranger he meets on the train. Elise also finds herself somewhat taken by Frank. So they spend much of the film saving each others’ lives, and what could be more positive (or romantic) than that?

We also see a tip-top work ethic modeled by Inspector John Acheson, an English law enforcement type who hopes to haul in Elise’s one-time lover, Alexander Pierce. It was Alexander who stole 2.3 billion British pounds from a notorious gangster, and so technically he owes the British government about 744 million pounds in back taxes. Acheson, with very little encouragement from his boss, makes it his mission to bring Alexander to justice.

Spiritual Elements

Elise wears a bracelet bearing the symbol of the two-faced Roman god Janus��a gift from her mother and a reminder that everyone has two sides to them: “We must embrace them both in someone we love,” she says.

Gangster Reginald Shaw says that he’ll not just kill the person who stole from him, but their spouses, their children, their mothers and possibly their family doctors too. Why? Because he paid what he calls the “infinite price” for his ill-gotten gains: “My soul.”

Sexual Content

We learn that Elise spent a year living with Alexander. She and Frank kiss thrice—and all three are pretty passionate smackers. When Elise tells Frank he’ll need to sleep on the couch outside her bedroom, he considers barging into her room anyway—going so far as to turn the bedroom doorknob. Elise watches the knob turn as she undresses (we see her lacy underwear) and seems to wish Frank would walk in on her … but Frank changes his mind and goes back to the couch. There he dreams he walks in on her and gives her a kiss.

Elise wears a bevy of glamorous outfits—many of which bare her shoulders, showcase her breasts and/or accentuate her curves. When she’s walking down the street, the surveillance team tailing her focus on her rear as they giggle over whether she’s wearing underwear that day.

Violent Content

Characters get slapped, punched, chased, shot at and occasionally knocked around with various maritime instruments (a life preserver and the underside of a boat). A police officer gets accidentally pushed into a canal. Frank is dragged behind a boat.

More intense is a scene in which an unfortunate thug gets strangled with a tailor’s measuring tape.

We hear that Shaw killed all his wife’s lovers and, when he learned how many she had, he killed her too. He threatens Elise with a knife, trailing it menacingly across her face and lips. Several people are killed by snipers in a climactic but essentially bloodless finale.

Crude or Profane Language

Two f-words, two s-words and a smattering of milder curses including “a‑‑,” “b‑‑tard,” “h‑‑‑,” “d‑‑n” and “bloody.” God’s name is misused at least three times.

Drug and Alcohol Content

When Elise first meets Frank, he’s puffing on an e-cigarette—an electronic device that gives users a hit of nicotine while appearing to be a real cigarette. (The end lights up with an orange LED, and water vapor curls from the end like smoke.)

“That’s disappointing,” Elise says when Frank tells her what the thing is. Frank asks her whether she wishes he smoked for real, and she says, “I’d rather you be a man who did exactly as he pleased.” So, later, Frank does smoke a real cigarette. We see other characters light up too.

Elise and Frank imbibe wine, champagne and mixed drinks.

Other Negative Elements

Inspector Acheson’s investigative focus is so narrow that he rarely thinks of the innocents who might be harmed in his pell-mell attempt to nab Alexander.

[ Spoiler Warning ] Frank and Elise make off with Shaw’s money and sail off into the sunset. They leave behind a check made out to the British government for 744 million pounds, which prompts Acheson’s boss to close the case. Acheson still wants to see justice served, but he’s told that the money’s really all the department wanted.

We see some gangster cronies play poker.

Frank tells Elise that where he comes from it’s complimentary to call someone “grounded.” We Americans, apparently, are no-nonsense types who respect folks who are down to earth.

But Frank says he’s tired of that. “You are the least down-to-earth person I ever met,” he dreamily tells Elise.

The Tourist , much like Elise, is completely untethered from what most of us would recognize as reality. This movie is a breezy affair bearing little grit, no grime … and no point. Just exciting chase scenes and loving looks and befuddled cops.

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, director and a co-writer for The Tourist , may have hoped it would feel a bit like an old-school Alfred Hitchcock film. And to some extent, it does. The intrigue, the exotic locales, the chilly femme fatale and the seemingly bewildered everyman, they’re all onscreen. Even the restraint the film shows in the sex and violence departments—while indulging glamorous depictions of drinking and smoking—makes the film feel like a 1950s throwback.

‘Course, most of Hitchcock’s works managed to keep you guessing while the mystery was in progress and made sense when it was solved. Those are items The Tourist didn’t pack in its luggage. It boasts some heavy-duty star wattage but never shakes its dim storyline. This is a two-hour escape from reality where the most meaningful thing we see is the closing credits.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

TV Review – The Tourist

March 7, 2022 by Martin Carr

Martin Carr reviews The Tourist…

This off-kilter thriller from the creators of Baptiste and The Missing , may feel like a Western with road movie tropes, but also sits squarely in Coen Brothers country. Trying to pressgang The Tourist into any traditional genre soon becomes an exercise in futility, as events begin to escalate quite quickly. Quirky encounters and an opening straight out of Steven Spielberg’s Duel , only manages to set the tone for five minutes, before another leftfield addition takes audiences elsewhere. Thankfully free from the constraints of a cohesive plot, Harry and Jack Williams pull together their disparate plot points into a story which feels genuinely organic.

As the eponymous man, Jamie Dornan excels in plugging himself straight into this ramshackle aesthetic, maintaining both mystique and momentum effortlessly. Going from car crash victim to would-be fugitive, this man with no name finds himself pursed half way across Australia, in a series which takes its time getting to the point. Helped in no small measure by Danielle Macdonald as local constable Helen Chamber, The Tourist taps into Coen Brothers touchstone Fargo , as well as lifting language liberally from their own unique back catalogue.

Tonally the shifts between comedy and thriller are deftly handled, making The Tourist an extremely engaging piece of television. Strong support from Shalom Brune-Franklin’s Luci, as partial accomplice and erstwhile love interest is welcome, while Olaf Darri Olafsson offers up a mountainous distraction as Billy, who wants to find our protagonist for completely different reasons.

However, beyond those tangible elements a second must be put aside for composer Dominik Scheer, who adds crucial atmospherics through his music. Using incidental piano accompaniment, snippets from syncopated strings, as well as brooding percussion, Dominik lifts this thriller into a different league. Combined with the visuals that depict a bleak and barren dust bowl tundra, where locals possess their own sunny disposition, The Tourist sets out to embrace something different.

If Taika Waititi made a Coen Brothers pastiche, then this may well be the end result, as comedic sensibilities and quirky perspectives clash. In this universe, dry wit and a laidback approach to life supersedes anything life threatening, as a series of unfortunate events culminates with law enforcement on the lamb, and more than a few dead bodies. As this intriguing domino effect continues and revelations come thick and fast, The Tourist loses none of its momentum, but instead becomes more cohesive.

In a strange way that is what audiences will discover as this tangled web continues to play out over time. Not only does the man with no name cease to be The Tourist in this equation, but more important than that, this series is guaranteed to keep them guessing until the final frame.

The Tourist is available on HBO Max on March 8th.

Martin Carr

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Tourist’ On Netflix, Where Jamie Dornan Plays A Man Without His Memory Trying To Outrun His Past

Where to stream:.

The Tourist

What would you do if you lost your memory? Not just what you had for breakfast, but all sense of who you are and who is in your life? Then you find out that someone really, really wants to see you dead? That’s the idea behind the new Netflix series, which originally ran on HBO Max back in 2022.

THE TOURIST : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Scenes of the arid environment in the Australian Outback. A tiny car drives down an empty road.

The Gist: A man (Jamie Dornan) stops for gas; he’s wearing a generic “AUSTRALIA” tourist t-shirt. He has no idea why the attendant at the station makes him sign out for the bathroom key. We see him come out the back door of the bathroom, next to the Dumpsters.

As he’s driving on the seemingly empty road in his tiny Mazda, a massive tractor trailer bears down on him. When the tractor trailer rams the man’s car, he realizes it’s not just an aggressive driver. After a long chase over some rough terrain, the man thinks he’s gotten away from the truck, when the truck slams into him, causing the tiny car to roll over a few times.

The man wakes up in the local hospital, surprisingly not severely injured. However, he has no idea who he is or what he was doing. He doesn’t even remember his own name. He can recall a song title when he’s in an MRI machine, but that’s about it.

A friendly local cop, Helen Chambers (Danielle Macdonald), goes to his room to take a statement. She is a bit uncomfortable with the man’s lack of memory, but ends up being reassuring to an extent. The only thing he finds in his possessions is a note to meet someone the next day at a diner in a nearby town. Helen says she’ll look into that.

We follow Helen home and see that, like most of us, she has issues with her weight, not the least of which is exacerbated by her fiancé Ethan (Greg Larsen) and their upcoming wedding.

Another thing we see is someone buried underground. Desperate to get out of whatever box he’s been put in, he tries to call someone on his phone, but no one is answering.

The man goes outside to get air, but gets lost inside the hospital, scaring him senseless. He decides to check himself out of the hospital the next day, against medical advice, because he needs to go to that diner and find out just who wanted to meet him there. Helen understands why he wants to do it, and gives him a bus ticket to get there.

At the diner, he meets a waitress named Luci (Shalom Brune-Franklin), who seems to be fascinated by his amnesia. When she spills lemonade on him, she takes him out to where there are bathrooms. Just then, there’s an explosion, right in the booth where he was sitting. He wonders aloud why in the world someone is trying to kill him.

Pictures from a disposable camera found at the crash site help him retrace his steps, as well as video from the gift shop he visited. It brings him back to the gas station and its bathroom. He doesn’t find out his name though, as he signed the key sign-out sheet as “Crocodile Dundee.” But he finds something else; a stuffed koala that he hid next to the Dumpster. Much to his surprise, it starts ringing.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Take the movie Memento and cross it with the quirkiness of the first season of the Fargo series, and you’ve got the vibe of The Tourist.

Our Take: The Tourist , written by Harry Williams and Jack Williams ( The Missing, Fleabag ) looks like it’s a complex show with a twisty plot, but when you really take a close look, it’s pretty straightforward. Dornan’s character has no idea who he is; all he knows is that someone wants to kill him. With the help of Helen and others, he’ll try to piece things together before those that are after him, including Billy (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), the whistling man who almost squashed him in the tractor trailer, catch up to him.

In the first episode, The Tourist evolves from what seems like a thriller to a more personal narrative. It’s why we get involved in Helen’s life when she’s off-duty. In a Weight Watchers-style meeting, she claims she doesn’t like her body, even though everyone is yelling about body acceptance. But it also feels like she’s more there because of her fiancé than anything else. So even though Helen knows her name, who’s in her life and what she does, she also hasn’t found herself. Plus, she seems to be made to feel guilty about just about everything.

Perhaps as she gets more involved in the life of Dornan’s character, the more she will figure out who she is. At least that’s what we hope, because Macdonald is utterly charming as Helen, who is very much in the vein of Allison Tolman’s portrayal of Molly Solverson in the aforementioned Fargo. She’s good at her job, even if she’s a bit green, but also is a friendly and helpful sort who needs to help herself most of all.

There is definitely a bit of a sense of humor running the first episode, but the Williamses aren’t trying to make the show quippy. The humor is there when people seem to be fascinated with Dornan’s character’s amnesia, though he assures them it’s no picnic. The humor creeps in along the edges of the show, but it does just enough to ease what is a pretty serious and grim performance by Dornan.

There is one twist near the end of the episode that we won’t spoil here, but it does make us wonder if, as things get more complicated for Dornan’s character (notice we haven’t named him yet, because the character has none as yet), the plot will become more convoluted. We hope not, as it seems the straightforward manner in which this story is being told suits The Tourist just fine.

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.

Parting Shot: When the stuffed koala starts ringing, the man digs out a burner phone and answers it. When the man who’s buried starts yelling in relief that he answered, the man says, “Uh, who’s this?”

Sleeper Star: Shalom Brune-Franklin does some compelling work as Luci, and we know that she’s much more involved in this story than most of the first episode lets on.

Most Pilot-y Line: Nothing we could find.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Tourist hooked us in with its story, plus the performances by Dornan, Macdonald and Brune-Franklin. Let’s hope the story continues to be interesting as the season goes on.

Joel Keller ( @joelkeller ) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com , VanityFair.com , Fast Company and elsewhere.

Jamie Dornan
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In 'The Tourist,' A Clumsy Game Of Cat And Mouse

Ella Taylor

Average Joe Meets Femme Fatale: Angelina Jolie, left, plays the mysterious Elise, who gets Johnny Depp's American tourist, Frank, into hot water when she leads her enemies to believe he is someone else. Peter Mountain/Sony Pictures hide caption

The Tourist

Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Genre: Drama/Thriller
Running Time: 103 minutes

Rated PG-13.

With: Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Paul Bettany, Timothy Dalton, Rufus Sewell

Watch Clips

'Burn This Letter'

Credit: Sony Pictures

'I'm Elise'

'Who Are You People?'

Throw a ton of money, two marquee names, a glam Venice location and a prime holiday release at a filmmaker whose Hollywood reach exceeds his grasp, and what do you get? In all likelihood, better box office than The Tourist deserves, followed by a brisk DVD run and early oblivion.

In 2006, German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck struck gold with The Lives of Others, a capably made, superbly acted bit of nonsense about a ruthless Stasi agent who converts to humanism after a revelatory afternoon spent listening to Mozart. The movie did well with audiences and won, among scores of other awards, an Oscar for Best Foreign Film, which in turn brought von Donnersmarck his first studio assignment. The result is The Tourist , an awkward jumble of half-assed thriller and lumbering romantic comedy, less competent by a wide margin than The Lives of Others. It's also a whole lot sillier, though not in a good way: von Donnersmarck, to put it charitably, has only the dimmest grasp of the fluid, breezy rhythms of a Hollywood action picture, and he seems ill at ease with the glitz required to carry off a studio love story.

Angelina Jolie's glamour doesn't need a lot of accessorizing, but just to be sure, Von Donnersmarck decks her out in Brigitte Bardot hair and Sophia Loren raccoon-eyes to play Elise, a mystery Brit with a passable command of French and Italian phrasebook greetings. She sits around fancy European cafes, smirking enigmatically, seemingly serene in the knowledge that she's under randy computer surveillance by assorted bumbling cops from European Interpol, supervised by a nervous nellie (Paul Bettany) in London.

For no apparent reason, Elise puckers up the famous Jolie lips and plants a lingering smooch on the lips of a dorky American named Frank, thus triggering what is commonly described in studio production notes as a deadly game of cat-and-mouse. Gamely played by Johnny Depp in an unhelpful knave-of-hearts bob, Frank is, so he says , a math teacher from Wisconsin who's tooling around Europe to mend a broken heart.

Perhaps that's why, when confronted by La Jolie in a champagne negligee in a ritzy Venice hotel room, Frank spends the night on the couch in his striped jammies. Then: "You're ravenous," he tells Elise when she appears dolled up for dinner, only to confess that she too pines for a lost love. "Do you mean ravishing?" she asks. "I do," he replies, mouth agape. " You're ravenous," she says, and whisks him off to a candle-lit dinner.

Mistaken Identity? Paul Bettany, left, plays Agent Acheson, who interrogates Frank (Johnny Depp) about what's up. Peter Mountain/Sony Pictures hide caption

Mistaken Identity? Paul Bettany, left, plays Agent Acheson, who interrogates Frank (Johnny Depp) about what's up.

With banter like this -- the script is credited to the very odd combo of von Donnersmarck, Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote The Usual Suspects , and Julian Fellowes, who writes tony British costume dramas like Gosford Park -- the smart money perforce has to be on the plot. Enter the villain (Steven Berkoff), whom we know is up to no good by the fact that he is Steven Berkoff, by the murderous glint in his glassy blue eyes, by a sharp acceleration in the strings sawing away on the soundtrack, and by the whispered news that he "owns most of the casinos and brothels between here and Nervous Bisque." (Novosibirsk, I'm guessing.)

There follows a lot of inept scampering across scenic rooftops and toppling into the churning waters of the Venice canals as Frank and Elise fall in love, hotly pursued by posses of burly chaps talking into their wrists. Mostly, though, there's a lot of scenic boating with Elise in regal silhouette at the helm, and a swank ball or two with Elise in slinky silks and laces and stuff. In due course, it is revealed that no one is who or what they say they are, and we are invited to have a good-humored chuckle about that.

And really, there's not much more to say about a movie whose funniest line goes to a hotel desk clerk -- except to suggest that before Mr. von Donnersmarck tries to make another thriller-slash-caper-slash-romantic-comedy, he may want to hunker down and watch either version of Ocean's Eleven.

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‘ghostbusters: frozen empire’ (pg-13).

Ghoulish reboot sequel has lots going on; language, scares.

“Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” is the sequel to the 2021 reboot, bringing together Ghostbusters new and old (even Bill Murray!) to fight an icy supernatural baddie. Some of the frights here are creepier and ickier than in previous iterations, including a scary, glowing-eyed ghoul who can freeze and shatter humans; a true “phantom limb”; suicidal mini-Stay Puft Marshmallow men; and an adorable spook that projectile-vomits. Characters are frequently in peril, proton pack weapons are used and there’s property damage galore (plus jump scares). Expect a few suggestive jokes, including older teens repeatedly referring to a secret room as a “sex dungeon.” Language includes “a--hole,” “son of a b----,” “s---,” “damn” and one reference to “the f-word.” One scene is set inside a smoke and vape shop, and an adult takes a swig from a bottle of alcohol. Amid all the ghostly mayhem are clear messages about family, belonging, teamwork, curiosity and perseverance. And the target audience of older tweens and teens is likely to enjoy the movie’s focus on 15-year-old Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and the other smart, capable teen characters. (115 minutes)

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‘The Casagrandes Movie’ (TV-Y7)

Fast-paced movie based on TV series has cartoon violence.

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Available on Netflix.

‘R oad House’ (R)

Remake of cult classic has violent fights, strong language.

“Road House” is a remake of the 1980s cult classic with Jake Gyllenhaal taking over for Patrick Swayze as Dalton (now an ex-UFC fighter), who is hired as a bouncer at a Florida Keys bar. Expect plenty of fights and brawls with punches, kicks, head-butts and stabbings. Bones are broken, and there are bloody injuries. Someone is eaten by a crocodile — they’re seen being dragged underwater — and another has their neck snapped. Characters are hit with bottles and clubs, and multiple scenes show people being repeatedly punched in the head. In one early scene, Dalton contemplates suicide: He parks his car on a railroad crossing but changes his mind at the last second. Real-life UFC fighter Conor McGregor co-stars as hired muscle Knox. He makes his entrance naked, though only his butt is seen. Expect lots of strong language, too, including “c---sucker,” “d---head,” “s---,” “son of a b----” and multiple variants of “f---.” There’s plenty of drinking, given the movie’s bar setting, and customers get involved in drunken altercations. Drugs and drug smuggling are mentioned. (121 minutes)

Available on Prime Video.

‘X-Men ’97’ (TV-PG)

Stellar retro animated action-adventure has violence.

“X-Men ’97” is an animated action show that continues the adventures of the 1990s cartoon “X-Men: The Animated Series.” Expect lots of fast-paced action and violence, including big guns, explosions and fistfighting. The X-Men, including Jean Grey (voiced by Jennifer Hale) and Cyclops (Ray Chase), have powers that can cause destruction and death, but the show’s violence is cartoonish overall. There’s also some disturbing dream imagery of a giant skull-like creature, Master Mold, and a villain’s head is set on fire. Language includes “pissed,” “dirtbag,” “freak,” “crap” and “dang.” The theme of discrimination against mutants is frequently addressed. The X-Men are serious about teamwork and care for one another as a family. (10 episodes)

Available on Disney Plus.

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How ‘The Sympathizer’s’ Depiction of the Vietnam War Helped Its Cast Make Sense of Their Heritage

By Selome Hailu

Selome Hailu

How ‘The Sympathizer’s’ Depiction of the Vietnam War Helped Its Cast Make Sense of Their Heritage 3 days ago
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About a month ago, “ The Sympathizer ” star Fred Nguyen Khan lost his grandmother.

She was a Vietnamese refugee who sought asylum in Canada, enduring a “staggered escape” that left her and her siblings terrified they wouldn’t survive or see each other again. But were it not for the show, in which Khan now plays a refugee himself, he may never have heard that story.

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“People from that generation, they don’t like to talk about the traumas they endured. They like to bottle it in. The only way they can cope with it is: They work hard. They get results,” says Khan, who grew up in Montreal. In an interview alongside three of his castmates, Khan recalls that for several of the show’s older actors, revisiting this moment in history made for a major moment for catharsis: “There’s a lot of crying, there’s a lot of hugging, and then actually starting to talk about it. It was such a big breakthrough for a lot of people, and even in my family. Once I wrapped the show, I was able to ask questions. [My grandmother] sat us all down and told us the story about how they escaped. I didn’t know what it was like, because as a kid, you don’t ask.”

Duy Nguyễn — who plays the Captain’s handler and best friend, Man — grew up in Hanoi within the culture that produced those hurdles.

“When I read the book for the first time, actually, I was mad,” he says. “What I’ve been taught in Vietnam, it’s only one side of the truth — just like American movies. I was like, ‘You’re not supposed to do this! That’s not the teaching!’ But then I read it again. And I read it again. And I read it again.”

“I understand that deep down, despite the political spectrum, whatever — these are just human beings,” he continues. “Their actions are what they think is best for their country. Neither is right or wrong. I am a completely changed human being after all the research I’ve done. I have become the sympathizer by the end of it.”

“My parents, I remember them telling stories of the past, and you’re just always brushing it aside,” says Xuande. “Maturing now, I was ignorant to these parts of the story that are really a part of who I am now. I feel a little bit ashamed that I never really took that part of my parents’ story seriously.”

Sandra Oh, who plays the Captain’s eventual girlfriend Sofia Mori, challenges Xuande: “I always want you to be gentle with yourself. Because the shame of not knowing the history, actually, I think comes from a deep need to assimilate. There are complicated things of why we assimilate the way that we do, and what we need to reject just to survive. But what is very, very healing is embodying the story that has not been told.”

Take it from her character: Sofia “believes she is a very liberated woman, a very progressive woman. But through this series, you see her start questioning her identity and wondering where she actually comes from,” Oh says. Though her character is Japanese, while Oh is the daughter of Korean immigrants, she relates to the way Sofia’s life changes after realizing the way she’s been prioritizing her Americanness above all.

“It’s Ms. Mori questioning her own hypocrisy, and I always do. Here I am, an Asian American woman of this era — you need to do this all the time, to wonder where you stand on things, and how deep you are actually going. Most everyone does have generations of trauma, and people don’t want to talk about it. My parents went through occupation, two world wars, then immigrated here. They don’t talk about it.”

“The Sympathizer” also allowed its cast to satirize the role American culture has played in sweeping their family history under the rug. In one episode, the Captain works as a cultural consultant on the set of Hollywood film about the war with a not-so-subtle resemblance to Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now.”

"The Sympathizer" star Hoa Xuande on working opposite Robert Downey Jr. in the HBO series: "He's just so crazy and fun and generous…He invokes that play in you." https://t.co/N7EjvV0Sda pic.twitter.com/h2f507Bb39 — Variety (@Variety) April 15, 2024

“It was such a brilliant directorial choice, that casting,” says Oh about Downey’s five roles. “The persona and who Robert is, and who he has represented in other characters — you can’t help but have that lend meaning that he is playing these archetypes of Western white patriarchy.”

In particular, she notes how Downey’s years of playing Marvel’s Iron Man — a character who works in weapons manufacturing — colors her view of his performance in “The Sympathizer.”

“Here you are, bringing that history to play, again , these archetypal pillars of education, of arts and culture, of politics, of spycraft, of government. It pushed all of the satire. He has so much strength as an actor. He is willing to go into the satire, he’s willing for his character to go into the racism.”

Sandra Oh, who stars in "The Sympathizer," unpacks Robert Downey Jr.'s performance as multiple characters in the HBO series: "He is playing these archetypes of Western white patriarchy…You're going to glean a lot of meaning from that." https://t.co/N7EjvV0Sda pic.twitter.com/r0iZns18ug — Variety (@Variety) April 15, 2024

Though “The Sympathizer” is billed as a limited series, the cast seems open to returning for more. The material is certainly there, as Nguyen published a sequel titled “The Committed” in 2021.

“There’s some stuff that I feel like I can’t yet talk about because this is a series of books. Viet has not yet finished the third book,” Oh says. “But I think in that, he’s also interested in exploring much more of where Ms. Mori is coming from.”

That would also allow more depth and backstory for the brotherhood between the Captain, Bon and Man, who sliced their palms together in childhood as a vow of devotion. That oath contorts over time, stretching in an attempt accommodate the political divides that open up between three characters. It’s their ties to each other as the war ends and Vietnam transforms that gives “The Sympathizer” its title.

“To speak about the bond between the blood brothers, chosen family — I came to Montreal alone. I craved a family here in Canada, and then I found Fred,” says Nguyễn, as he and Khan’s friendship predates their casting in the show. “Immediately I was like, ‘OK, he’s my family now.'”

“I’m glad we get to show that,” he concludes, in tears. “No matter who you are, you can still treat other human beings like human beings.”

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‘Fallout’ Finds the Fun in an Apocalyptic Hellscape

TV’s latest big-ticket video game adaptation, from the creators of “Westworld,” takes a satirical, self-aware approach to the End Times.

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A man with a scarred face and missing nose wears a cowboy hat and smiles

By Austin Considine

The scream was just right — bloodcurdling, if also very funny — and the practical effects crew had finally found the proper volume and trajectory of the water cannon. The idea was to film what might happen if you ripped a man from the throat of a mutant salamander, exploding its guts like a giant water balloon.

All that remained was to decide what color of bile to slather on the actor (Johnny Pemberton) and on the salamander’s many teeth, which nuclear radiation had transformed into rows of humanlike fingers.

Based on observations made during a visit to the Brooklyn set of “Fallout” in early 2023, Amazon had spared no expense to make the show, the latest genre-bending series from Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, the creators of “Westworld.” So it was no surprise when Nolan, on set to direct that chilly afternoon, was presented with not one but some half-dozen buckets of bile to choose from, in a variety of revolting hues. He settled on a pukey pinkish yellow.

“This is the closest thing to comedy that I’ve worked on,” he said later by phone. With writing credits on films like “Memento,” “The Dark Knight” and “The Prestige,” Nolan has tended to skew dark. Comically exploding monster guts — this was new territory.

“It’s a lot of fun,” he said.

A fun apocalypse? Amid all the doom and gloom of most sci-fi spectacles and social media feeds? Yes, please.

“Fallout” premieres Wednesday on Prime Video, and at first it may sound familiar to viewers of a certain postapocalyptic HBO hit from last year, “The Last of Us.” Imagine: a sprawling, expensive adaptation of a beloved videogame franchise that features an unlikely duo — a nihilistic old gunslinger with a tortured past and a tough young woman whose mission overlaps with his. Together, they travel a lawless America plagued by criminals, fanatics, killer mutants and trigger-happy survivors.

But where “The Last of Us” had a decidedly serious and heartfelt tone, “Fallout,” in keeping with its source material, is satirical and self-aware, rich with ironic detail. Sets and costumes lovingly blend B-movie conventions from multiple genres, including westerns, horror and Atomic Age sci-fi. The violence is comically over-the-top.

That unlikely duo? The man (Walton Goggins) is a disfigured former western star who, among other things, puts the woman (Ella Purnell) on a leash and tries to hawk her organs. Their overlapping mission? To find a severed head.

“I am still wrapping my head around it to be quite honest with you,” Goggins said during a brief production break on set. He was dressed in the kind of immaculate Hollywood cowboy duds — think golden fringe and a tidy matching neckerchief — that a real cowboy might spit a beer on.

“It’s ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ meets. …” He paused, searched for the perfect comparison. “It’s ‘Strangelove’ meets the ‘Star Wars’ bar.”

Until recently, live-action video game adaptations were mostly a losing proposition for television. “The Last of Us” by most accounts broke the streak . A commercial and critical darling, it earned eight Primetime Emmys in January, and its 24 total nominations included one for best drama.

Such success seemed remote five years ago, when Nolan had his first conversations with Bethesda Game Studios, the company that owns the Fallout franchise. An avid gamer, Nolan had long been a fan. The original game, which debuted in 1997, established the premise: In an alternative America, the postwar optimism and kitschy aesthetics of the Eisenhower Era never ended, only evolved. There was no Vietnam, no Watergate, no Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. Then in 2077, a nuclear war between the United States and China wiped out modern civilization worldwide.

Those who could afford it retreated into vast underground networks of shelters, known as vaults, until it was safe to come out. The game begins in 2161 when a “vault-dweller,” who has never known anything but the Beaver Cleaver-ish culture preserved underground, ventures into the irradiated wastelands around Los Angeles on a vital mission. (Later games travel to other cities and times.)

Several Fallout adaptations had been aborted or turned down over the years, said Todd Howard, Bethesda’s executive producer, who is also an executive producer of the show. After seeing and loving “Westworld,” however, Howard approached Nolan and Joy. He had heard Nolan was a gamer.

“He had clearly played a lot,” Howard said — Fallout 3 especially. “He could speak to it with authenticity and had a view of what made it tick.” (“Fallout 3 was a game that you could play comfortably for 50 to 100 hours,” Nolan said.)

Bethesda’s priorities were twofold: A TV series had to stay true to the lore of the games but also be written like a whole new chapter, same as any game sequel.

“It was very important to us not to have a show that translated one particular game story but that told something original,” Howard said. “The main character in the Fallout series is the world of Fallout.”

Amazon signed on to produce in 2020, part of an overall deal with Nolan and Joy’s production company, Kilter Films. To begin building the Fallout world, Kilter brought in two creator-showrunners: One, Geneva Robertson-Dworet, had written scripts for big adaptations before, including “Tomb Raider” (2018) and “Captain Marvel” (2019); the other, Graham Wagner, was a TV comedy writer, with credits on “Baskets,” “Silicon Valley” and 50 episodes of “Portlandia.”

For them it was a “best of both worlds” situation. They had been given a trove of intellectual property to start with, already popular among millions. But they also had freedom to simply craft a good story without worrying so much about satisfying gamer fan police.

“The fans of the games want to hear us say that we take the I.P. seriously,” Wagner said in a joint interview with Robertson-Dworet. “Of course we do, because we like it. But you don’t want to let that burden make it feel like a job. Because then everyone’s watching you do a job, and then it just feels like work.”

Robertson-Dworet later added, laughing: “We talk a lot about the [expletive] we’re going to eat for the show. It’s going to be either too woke, too fascist, not fascist enough. … ” She trailed off. The possibilities were endless.

In a separate video call, Kyle MacLachlan, who plays a guest role in the show, didn’t seem worried. And he knows something about protective fan bases. (See: David Lynch’s “Dune.” Or David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: The Return.”)

“I think it’s evident, when you look at the sets and the production value and the tone of the show, that they’re making a big effort to try to incorporate the reality of that world,” he said. “It’s a perfect place to put a story.”

For all the new material, fans of the game will find plenty that is familiar about the story. The show’s other male lead, Aaron Moten, plays an initiate of the Brotherhood of Steel, a fanatical warrior faction found in all of the games. (They suit up in Iron Man-like robotic armor that, 219 years after the end of modern civilization, is prone to breaking down.) Though Purnell’s character arrives over 130 years after the events of the first game, she draws heavily from it.

“She goes up to the wasteland, and she finds out that everything she ever believed is a lie,” Purnell said on a video call with Moten. “It makes her start to question everything,” she added. “And she has to make that choice, right? Adapt or die. Who’s she going to be?”

However fans respond to “Fallout,” no one can doubt the creators’ commitment. Back in Brooklyn in early 2023, a set tour with the show’s production designer, Howard Cummings, offered a glimpse of the massive scope. Indoors, a mazelike series of corridors and chambers amounted to a multilevel reproduction of the vaults. Outdoors, a ramshackle junk city included whole buses and the front end of a 747 jet, trucked in from California. The New York production alone had 35 welders working at once, Cummings said.

This was to say nothing of the location shoots in the Utah desert, or on the Skeleton Coast in Namibia , a stand-in for a postapocalyptic Pacific Palisades, all shot on widescreen film instead of digital. (“The power of dragging yourself to a beautiful and remote place to capture that beauty on film, it still works,” Nolan said. “It always works.”) Or of the 360-degree virtual soundstage, made up of thousands of LED tiles — for when you need the location to come to you.

“New York didn’t have one,” Cummings said. “But it does now!”

Unsurprisingly, “Fallout” looks great. Still, all the money in Amazon’s coffers can’t make a show good, and the streamer, which declined to share budget numbers, has reportedly spent hundreds of millions of dollars on large-scale series, like “Citadel” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” that have yet to make much of an impact with viewers or critics. Amid the glut of heavier end-times material out there, it seemed like a refreshing start, at least, that the “Fallout” creators’ goal was to entertain viewers, not pile onto them.

Nolan called making it an “expiating” experience: Coming out of a pandemic, amid global instability and a deterioration of political discourse, you had to laugh sometimes, he said.

“It’s the only way to make it through.”

Because of a surprise programming change by Amazon the night before publication, an earlier version of this article misstated the premiere date of “Fallout.” It is Wednesday, April 10, not Thursday.

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Austin Considine is The Times's assistant TV editor. More about Austin Considine

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Theda Hammel’s directorial debut, “Stress Positions,” a comedy about millennials weathering the early days of the pandemic , will ask audiences to return to a time that many people would rather forget.

“Fallout,” TV’s latest big-ticket video game adaptation, takes a satirical, self-aware approach to the End Times .

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The Tourist Movie Review
Parents say ( 9 ): Kids say ( 29 ): THE TOURIST's look and feel are refreshing tributes to Alfred Hitchcock 's classic thrillers, in which mysterious, beautiful women on a train usually spelled trouble. Jolie is perfectly cast; she's the kind of actress you can believe would have every single man (and woman) in a train car staring at her.
The Tourist (TV Series 2022-2024)
Violence & Gore. Severe 20 of 35 found this severe. People get shot, kicked, punched, have straws rammed in eyes, crowbars in heads and crushed to death with a truck door. Violent deaths in the series are gory and occur at close range.
The Tourist movie review & film summary (2022)
HBO Max continues stealth drops of some of the best drama mini-series on television. Last year highlights included "The Head" and "Station Eleven," and they start 2022 strongly with the fantastic "The Tourist," a twisty tale that plays like an Aussie version of "Fargo."With sharp dialogue, clever plotting, and career-best work from Jamie Dornan and Danielle Macdonald, this is a ...
The Tourist review
In six-part TV series The Tourist, Jamie Dornan joins a coterie of famous foreign actors who have been plonked in the Australian outback and left to fry in the sun for our dramatic amusement.
Review: 'The Tourist' is a ferocious thriller that relentlessly keeps
"The Tourist," on HBO Max in a blast of six, one-hour episodes, is a ferocious thriller that's also ferociously funny. Deals & Steals spring bonanza, part 3! ... have seen a lot of Coen brothers movies, especially "Fargo" and "Raising Arizona" with their deliciously deadpan blend of mirth and menace. If you're going to borrow ...
The Tourist
During an impromptu trip to Europe to mend a broken heart, math teacher Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp) finds himself in an extraordinary situation when an alluring stranger, Elise (Angelina Jolie ...
'The Tourist' review: A jumbled mystery burying dark comedy gold
The Tourist is a buddy comedy in its best moments, something it should mightily lean into if it gets another season. Just a couple pals going for burritos! Credit: Ian Routledge / Two Brothers ...
'The Tourist' Review: Jamie Dornan in HBO Max Thriller
The Tourist. The Bottom Line A beautifully shot and well-paced thriller that could have been tighter. Airdate: Thursday, March 3 (HBO Max) Cast: Jamie Dornan, Danielle Macdonald, Shalom Brune ...
The Tourist movie review & film summary (2010)
A depressing element is how much talent "The Tourist" has behind the camera. Writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck made "The Lives of Others," which won the 2007 Oscar for best foreign film.The screenplay is by Christopher McQuarrie (Oscar winner for "The Usual Suspects") and Julian Fellowes (Oscar winner for "Gosford Park"), along with von Donnersmarck.
The Tourist review: an effective outback thriller with dry humour
The Tourist writers Harry and Jack Williams were also behind UK series The Missing, Baptiste and Liar (this is a co-production between the BBC, HBO Max and Stan) so the propulsive start to this six part series shouldn't be a surprise. This runs closer to traditional pulp than their usual murder dramas, at least at first. As the mystery progresses the police turn up to do some serious ...
The Tourist
This movie is a breezy affair bearing little grit, no grime … and no point. Just exciting chase scenes and loving looks and befuddled cops. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, director and a co-writer for The Tourist, may have hoped it would feel a bit like an old-school Alfred Hitchcock film. And to some extent, it does.
Review: 'The Tourist' is a ferocious thriller that relentlessly keeps
Ian Routledge/Two Brothers Pictures. Talk about a binge watch! "The Tourist," on HBO Max in a blast of six, one-hour episodes, is a ferocious thriller that's also ferociously funny. Starring ...
The Tourist
Martin Carr reviews The Tourist…. This off-kilter thriller from the creators of Baptiste and The Missing, may feel like a Western with road movie tropes, but also sits squarely in Coen Brothers ...
'The Tourist' Netflix Review: Stream It Or Skip It?
Our Call: STREAM IT. The Tourist hooked us in with its story, plus the performances by Dornan, Macdonald and Brune-Franklin. Let's hope the story continues to be interesting as the season goes ...
In 'The Tourist,' A Clumsy Game Of Cat And Mouse
Movie Review - 'The Tourist' - In Venice, A Clumsy Game of Cat And Mouse There are fancy-dress balls and scenic boat rides aplenty in the new Johnny Depp-Angelina Jolie actioner -- it's just that ...
'The Tourist' Thrills, but Doesn't Take Itself Too Seriously
LONDON — After his car is rammed off the road by a mystery driver in a truck, a Northern Irishman wakes up in a hospital in the Australian outback with no memory of who he is. "I keep telling ...
The Tourist (TV Series 2022-2024)
9/10. Entertaining. Rob1331 25 February 2024. I found that The Tourist is even more entertaining than people were saying it was. The Tourists follows an unnamed man (Jaime Dornan) who loses his memory after a car accident. We literally know nothing about him or the story.
Fans Of 'The Tourist' Will Love The New Netflix Series 'Bodkin'
It's all about the luck of the Irish over at Netflix with two fun mystery series. Viewers who loved The Tourist will want to binge-watch the new darkly comedic thriller, Bodkin, premiering on ...
What to watch with your kids: 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire ...
Common Sense Media helps families make smart media choices. Go to commonsense.org for age-based and educational ratings and reviews for movies, games, apps, TV shows, websites and books.
Civil War (2024)
Civil War: Directed by Alex Garland. With Nick Offerman, Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Jefferson White. A journey across a dystopian future America, following a team of military-embedded journalists as they race against time to reach DC before rebel factions descend upon the White House.
'Challengers' Review: Luca Guadagnino Smashes the Sports-Movie Mold
Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist compete for Zendaya's affections in 'Challengers,' a steamy, stylish tennis-centric love triangle from Luca Guadagnino.
Six Swiss Docs Tackle Homophobia, Climate Change, Global Debacles
In an era of adverse circumstance, the doc features highlight figures who rebel, whether against Russia's war on the Ukraine ("Dom"), climate change ("Iceman"), homophobia in Palermo ...
Canary Islanders call for hunger strike to protest against ...
In response, local government officials have proposed a dialogue between politicians, academics and citizens to design a tourism strategy linked to social, environmental and economic sustainability.
'The Sympathizer' Cast on Vietnam War and Their Own Family ...
From left to right: Duy Nguyễn as Man, Fred Nguyen Khan as Bon, Hoa Xuande as the Captain Hopper Stone/SMPSP. "The Sympathizer," which premieres on HBO and Max on April 14, is based on Viet ...
Parent reviews for The Tourist
Parents say (1) Kids say. age 17+. Based on 1 parent review. Add your rating. Sort by: Most Helpful. HikesLikesbikes Parent of 10-year-old. May 2, 2022.
'Fallout' Finds the Fun in an Apocalyptic Hellscape
Together, they travel a lawless America plagued by criminals, fanatics, killer mutants and trigger-happy survivors. "It's a perfect place to put a story," Kyle MacLachlan said, referring to ...

The Tourist review – Jamie Dornan is intense in explosively entertaining outback thriller

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