When it was launched in 2010, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s “The Vacationer” — a remake of Jérôme Salle’s 2005 French thriller “Anthony Zimmer” — was unfairly maligned. The movie solely racked up a piddling 21% approval score on Rotten Tomatoes, primarily based on 175 opinions, with critics lambasting the difficult plot and the informal tempo. Peter Travers referred to as it one of many worst movies of the yr, and Roger Moore felt the 2 leads, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie, had no romantic chemistry.
Stephanie Zacharek, nonetheless, cherished it, noting that it was the sort of romantic worldwide caper movie that is not made anymore, calling it “elegant” and “sensuous.” This creator tends to agree with Zacharek, feeling “The Vacationer” to be horny, grownup, and dazzling. It has two horny film stars trekking by beautiful European locales, partaking in light-weight espionage and buying and selling flirty appears. It looks like a film from a previous era, one that ought to have charmed worldwide audiences with its overwhelming sparkle. The script by von Donnersmarck, Christopher McQuarrie, and Julian Fellowes is frothy and old school. The movie is de facto, actually pleasant.
In fact, in 2024, it is tougher to look at “The Vacationer” as a result of presence of Depp. Due to a really public divorce with actor Amber Heard, a variety of particulars about Depp’s alleged acts of home abuse got here to mild, leaving lots of his former followers to reject his work. Depp has additionally been in hassle with the legislation through the years for drunken misconduct and temperamental conduct on film units. Lately, he works so much much less, and lots of of his movies aren’t as celebrated as they as soon as may need been. Depp may need made it tough to get pleasure from a blinding movie like “The Vacationer,” had it come out now.
Again in 2010, nonetheless, Depp was nonetheless within the public’s good graces, and we may get pleasure from his performances with out the necessity for an asterisk. Certainly, he gave a light-weight interview with IGN that yr, speaking about how he lower his foot on the set of “The Vacationer” and that he did not discover till he began bleeding on the ground.
Johnny Depp’s bloody foot
As a result of “The Vacationer” belongs to the worldwide caper style, one can relaxation assured there can be a minimum of one chase throughout rooftops. The plot entails an unassuming math instructor named Frank (Depp), who’s merely on a solo European trip when he’s focused by Elise Clifton-Ward, a wished prison. She approaches him on a prepare, briefly chats him up, and virtually instantly whisks him into a lifetime of well-moneyed pleasure, the 2 consistently on the run from the legislation. The police imagine that Frank is definitely Elise’s husband, Alexander Pearce, a person who may’ve had cosmetic surgery to cover out from the authorities.
Throughout one of many many scenes the place the 2 stars are on the lam, Frank dashes throughout a roof. Throughout the filming of that scene, Depp lower his foot. It did not harm, nonetheless, till he noticed the blood a number of minutes later. When requested concerning the rumors surrounding the harm, Depp confirmed they have been true, telling IGN:
“That was wild. As a result of whenever you’re doing it and your adrenaline goes, you do not actually discover issues like that. However I used to be standing there speaking to Florian, and he was like, ‘Oh my God.’ There was blood dripping down these terracotta tiles and I suppose I would left just a little path behind me. You do not really feel it until later.”
That is seemingly a typical expertise for many people, who could have been harm or injured in such a approach that we do not discover the ache. Typically, one cannot really feel the total brunt of the harm till they see the harm close-up. Depp’s harm wasn’t severe, and it was patched up with none points. It was just for just a few moments that the actor left bloody footprints behind.
“The Vacationer” was director von Donnersmarck’s alternative to make a mainstream Hollywood hit after his debut movie, the Chilly Warfare drama “The Lives of Others,” received an Academy Award in 2007. “The Vacationer” was a modest business hit, making simply over $278 million on a $100 million price range, however its important rejection just about put the kibosh on von Donnersmarck’s Hollywood profession. He has solely made one movie, “By no means Look Away,” since then.
