It’s been made clear that Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck‘s The Tourist (Sony, 12.10) is a straight diversionary entertainment. And yet expectations certainly kicked up a notch when it was announced last August it would open in December rather than a previously slotted opening in early 2011, and it was hard to dismiss the idea that the hand of von Donnersmarck, director of The Lives of Others, might yield something extra.

The Johnny Depp-Angleina Jolie film was junketed a day or two ago in Paris, but I’ve read nothing about it, not even a tweet. And it won’t screen domestically until Wednesday, 12.8, or two days before it opens. If it was good enough to be rescued from a late winter or spring 2011 debut, why isn’t it good enough for someone to say at least something in the wake of the Paris junket screenings? How could a director as assured and impassioned as von Donnersmarck fail to deliver at least a moderately passable thriller?

“I loved Florian’s first film and he was a jolly chap when I spoke with him [for an inteview],” a friend wrote yesterday, “but this kind of late reveal doesn’t bode well.

Have I missed something?