| MR. & MRS. SMITH |
 2005 - USA
Director: Doug Liman - Reviewed by Vickie 
It’s a testament to the terrific onscreen chemistry between Angelina
Jolie and Brad Pitt that I’m actually giving this movie five slices.
That’s right, five slices. I liked it, and I’m not afraid to say so.
Oh, Mr. & Mrs. Smith is pretty sloppy, has big plot holes and
inconsistencies, relies too heavily on long and drawn-out action
sequences where people shoot at each other and feels at times as though
key (explanatory) scenes had been edited out…and yet, much to my own
shock and awe, I walked out of the theater smiling. Smiling!
Why? Because the film’s two leads aren’t just pretty to look at, but they both deliver pitch-perfect performances that embrace the humor, anger, love and hate of their characters’ curious situation. And for that, I reward them with slices! Pitt is John Smith, a killer-for-hire working for a no-frills assassination agency operating out of a rusty, dank, over-cluttered, old riverside warehouse. His partner in crime is Eddie (the magnificent Vince Vaughn, who steals the movie!) and their boss is the heard-but-never-seen Angela Bassett. John is married to Jane Smith (Jolie), a high-tech killing machine working at a slick, big-money, über-sexxxxy all-woman organization (featuring fellow “agents” made up of notable TV stars like the rowr-tastic Stephanie March, Perrey Reeves and Jennifer Morrison). Jane’s partner in crime is Jasmine (Kerry Washington), and their boss is the heard-but-never-seen Keith David. (Handing out killing orders over the phone seems to be the practice at organizations such as these.) Both John and Jane lead parallel double lives with benign covers, and neither knows what the other really does for a living…until they both wind up being assigned to the same job: rid the world of Seth Cohen. Okay, it’s The O.C.’s Adam Brody as a guy named (try not to laugh) “The Tank,” but still. Once John and Jane meet at work, so to speak, realize they have remarkably similar careers and that each has essentially botched the hit for the other, the film becomes a kill-or-be-killed game of one-upsmanship between the two. Apparently, to paraphrase Daffy vs. Marvin the Martian, this world just ain’t big enough for two hottie assassins with the same address. Director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) makes sure to pack the film with more than enough action—in the form of car chases, elevator crashes, décor-store shoot-‘em’ups and a pull-out-all-the-stops in-house battle that does to the Smith residence in a matter of minutes what Ty Pennington and the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition demolition crew would sweat over for hours. But, after a while, and sometimes even during a sequence intended to wow, it got boring and repetitive. Where the film hits its stride is in the interplay between Jolie and Pitt. Their Smiths are a once-steamy couple who have become stuck in the rut of domestic banality after six years of marriage. The spark is gone from their relationship. They nit-pick. They argue. They’ve grown distant and, at the outset of the film, are actually seeing a couples’ therapist. But once they have a new outlet for the frustration (namely, trying to kill each other), the movie kicks into gear. The dialogue and delivery becomes a smart, comic delight as the married assassins’ personal and professional gripes overlap and the duo try to put their relationship differences aside to get the job done and just kill each other. Both actors also seem to be having a great time with the material, which adds to the sense of fluffy fun. Mr. & Mrs. Smith isn’t so much a spy thriller as it is a deft relationship comedy (like The War of the Roses) set against the backdrop of espionage and high-caliber firearms. And, despite a heap of unwanted publicity and the collective hopes of many that the movie will be a total dud, it really works and works well. Sorry. |
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