Jamie Dornan as Elliot Stanley in "The Tourist"I should have written about "The Tourist" before. After all, I finished watching it ten days ago. Using the BBC i-player, I got ahead of the television schedule and watched the six one hour episodes in six days. That still seems like cheating to me.
Written by Harry and Jack Williams and directed by Chris Sweeney, "The Tourist" is set in a dusty part of rural Australia. The central character - known at first as "The Man" - has been in a dramatic road accident which has robbed him of his memory. He has no idea who he is or why he is even in Australia.
There are a handful of killings in the show and as I have indicated before, I am not a fan of killings - they often seem gratuitous but in this instance I was prepared to let them pass for the greater dramatic good.
"The Tourist" is craftily put together with quirky humour and many eye-catching details. It travels backward and forward in time and is visually appealing with intrigue round every corner.
The performance of Danielle Macdonald as probationary police officer Helen Chambers was as charming as it was comforting. Her positive spirit and naivete stood in contrast to the ruthlessness of characters played by Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Alex Dimitriades and Damon Herriman.
I do not wish to give too much away so I will just finish here by saying that I found "The Tourist" to be really entertaining and it held my attention throughout. You never quite knew what to expect and I loved the dusty Australian settings that helped to give the drama substance and believability. Maybe you would like it too.
I'm not sure which rock I have been under but I haven't heard of The Tourist. I love to watch Australian film/ TV so I'll be searching this one out. Thanks for the review!
ReplyDelete"The Tourist" seems to be an international collaboration.
DeleteSounds interesting. Have you watched Ted Lasso?
ReplyDeleteI heard some chatter about the show and what grabbed me was a remark about how unlikely it would be that a woman from Northern Ireland would be unable to drive a car with a manual transmission.
ReplyDeleteIt was the central character actually. There were several quirky things like that. I suspect the film makers were aware of the questions that might be asked.
DeleteI haven't heard of this one, I'll see if I can get it.
ReplyDeleteAdelaide is referred to several times River.
DeleteI've seen the trailer to this. It's regularly touted on the BBC website, but hasn't registered with me that it's something worth watching.
ReplyDeleteBeing an hour ahead here, I tend to sometimes forget, and miss the start of some programmes, or don't watch at all because they finish too late - sometimes after midnight - and I'm an early riser.
I'm a late riser and a night owl Carol.
DeleteWe are watching it weekly. It is excellent. Hopefully it has a decent ending that I can actually understand and be satisfied with! I have wasted far too much time watching series that I struggle to understand or the ending just fizzles out, probably leaving it open for the next series!!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was really good and to me a second series would be inappropriate. I was satisfied with the ending Frances.
DeleteI would be interested to watch it on my ipad with subtitles. May I ask though, are there any graphic scenes of violence? I really can't watch anything like that.
ReplyDeleteThe shootings take up a tiny percentage of the screen time. They don't take over.
DeleteI have not heard of this drama but maybe I can find it on Netflix. BBC iplayer does not work here, unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteI'm like JayCee and can't watch any violence. The scenery sounds good. We can't get I Player over here either but we get the BBC channels for free.
ReplyDeleteI understand that a few TV companies frrom around the world were involved in making "The Tourist". The BBC was just one of the organisations.
DeleteI'm halfway in so don't know the ending yet as I'm watching it as it's aired, but I am intrigued as to how it's going to end.
ReplyDeletePLeased to learn that you have also been intrigued by this drama too ADDY.
DeleteMurder disturbs me so much that I prefer cosy formulaic drama:
ReplyDeleteJoan Hickson as Miss Marples (the best and wisest Marples);
David Suchet as Poirot (now taken over by acerbic John Malkovich);
And reruns of Lieutenant Columbo: I wish they had cast Gore Vidal as the killer: Vidal's hubris would have collapsed under Peter Falk's mild relentless probing.
Life imitates art, as Oscar Wilde said, so I am sure *The Tourist* is as intrigue-driven as any major news story today (Prince Andrew, Ghislaine Maxwell and the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein make an intrigue-heavy cast like the full 4-hour Prince Hamlet).
Raymond Carver's story, *So Much Water, So Close to Home* was adapted as an Australian film, *Jindabyne* (2004) which I have watched four times on DVD.
Set in New South Wales, it has Laura Linney, Gabriel Byrne and a haunting landscape.
I still mourn the loss of Australian talents like Jane Campion and Peter Weir, who decamped to Hollywood Babylon.
Robert Bresson, Jean-Luc Godard and Truffaut were never tempted though Truffaut flew to L.A. to interview Hitchcock about whom he wrote an illustrated book.
Marcello Mastroianni went out to Hollywood decades ago and never signed a contract.
*I did not like the food,* he was reported to say.
Thanks for the heads up re. *So Much Water, So Close to Home* Mr Haggerty. I would like to watch that.
DeleteYou write that the central character has been robbed of his memory, Neil.
ReplyDeleteLoss of early childhood memory is the theme of Anita Brookner's novel, *Latecomers*.
Also of W.G. Sebald's *Austerlitz* : the title recalls the famous battle of the Napoleonic Wars, the railway station in Paris, and the protagonist's name.
I remember hearing of Max Sebald's death in a road accident in 2001.
*East End Walk following W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz (4K).*
YouTube. John Rogers.
Sounds good! If I come across it, I will watch it.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard of this but it sounds intriguing. I like mysteries and well-acted dramas.
ReplyDeleteCoincidentally, we are just now watching the excellent show "The Fall," with Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan, on Netflix. It's several years old but we missed it on its first outing. I don't remember seeing this Dornan guy before but suddenly he's everywhere!
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