'The Tourist': A Delightful Surprise

"The Tourist," which is playing at Carmike and Regal chain theaters in the Roanoke are, is a movie short on promise and long on entertainment. A light, romantic vehicle for Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp, it is quick, witty, tricky and a heck of a lot of fun at every step along the way.

Depp, as Frank, the title tourist, is an often bewildered college math teacher bewitched by Jolie's involvement in international intrigue involving police from London and Venice and a really bad mob guy who has had something more than two billion dollars swiped by a mysterious man named Pierce, whom everybody is chasing.

The whole caper is convoluted, but like a good Hitchcock movie, it doesn't matter who they're chasing or what he has, it's the chase that's fun and in "The Tourist" the chase is everything.

This is a movie with quite a troubled background that at one time had Tom Cruise and Charlize Theron in the lead roles and went through quite a few people before settling on Depp and Jolie, whose chemistry is simply charming. Critics have generally been luke warm to the movie for all the reasons I like it. So, what the hell?

Loads of fun. It'll leave you smiling. Especially with that wicked twist at the end.