(That‘s one form of marriage counseling that probably won‘t catch on across the country…)
CAST: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Vince Vaughn, Adam Brody, Kerry Washington, Keith David, Michelle Monaghan.
DIRECTOR: Doug Liman
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and one serious love-hate relationship - straight ahead…
IT’S LIKE THIS: John (Brad Pitt) and Jane (Angelina Jolie) are your basic married-couple-going-on-six-years-of-wedded-sort-of-bliss: they are bored out of their skulls. So much so that they’ve taken to having meetings with marriage counselors to ensure that their, ahem, “engine” is still running well. Instead of, you know, just going to Hawaii and going scuba diving with sharks or just doing some other fun thang. Whatever… Anyhow, turns out these two are more exciting than meets the eye: they’re both super-skilled and super-secret assassins who work for competing agencies. Yup, you read that right folks. Our Vanilla Couple is not so vanilla after all. They are both experts at unleashing El Can De Whoop-Ass on targets who deserve it. Only problem is they don’t know this secret truth about one another. Then their agencies send them both after the same target: Benjamin Danz (Adam Brody), who’s somehow been marked for death despite looking like an uber-dork. And just like that, the cat's out of the bag, folks. You don’t have to be psychic to intuit that John and Jane’s neighborhood is about to see a reenactment of THE WAR OF THE ROSES - only with martial arts moves and Uzis. Run. Run now.
THE DUDE (OR DUDETTE) MOST LIKELY TO SAVE THE DAY: John and Jane. If they ever just decide to accept that each of them is married to a savage, bloodthirsty killer. Which makes them perfect for each other. And if each - or both - of them can fight off the goons that their respective agencies unleash on their neighborhood.
EYE CANDY MOST LIKELY TO FIRE UP A WOODY: Toss up between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, at first. But it’s Vince Vaughn who gets my vote as John’s excitable buddy. He’s like a big rumpled teddy bear that you just want to titty-twist into submission.
MOST INTENTIONALLY EXCITING SCENE: John and Jane beating the tar out of each other - and subsequently redecorating their lavish home, and not for the better.
MOST UNINTENTIONALLY EXCITING SCENE: The dinner scene where John picks at a pot roast that Jane prepared - and possibly poisoned. Sorry, but that fucker looked so delicious, I would’ve swallowed it whole - cyanide-laced or not.
HOTTEST SCENE: The aforementioned John-and-Jane-Smackdown. In my household, we call that “Foreplay.”
INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW: Can this marriage be saved? Will these two hotties just finally stop playing war games and meet each other halfway and accept that they‘re soulmates? Do they really love each other? If so, what’s up with all the bitchslaps and dropkicks? For that matter, is Benjamin a true target? Or was he used to set-up John and Jane? How will the Smiths celebrate their sixth anniversary with half the world’s assassins after them? Will they do a spoof called MR. & MR. SMITH? If so, I volunteer for the Angelina Jolie role.
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH “MR. & MRS. SMITH”: If you like dynamic and kinetic action flicks with nice doses of humor, sexiness, and romance. And if you are on Team Jolie.
WHY YOU MAY NOT ENJOY “MR. & MRS. SMITH”: If you can‘t suspend your disbelief or accept that sometimes a couple just needs to smack each other around to spice up their marriage. And if you are on Team Aniston…
BUT, SERIOUSLY: In previous reviews, we’ve talked about how many films need to be taken with tongue-sort-of-planted-in-cheek. Lots of movies have plots that, while set in the everyday, definitely do not traffic in the mundane. Such a film is MR & MRS SMITH. Sure, the mundane is the surface veneer that the movie cleverly projects to us: a married couple starting to get bored with one another. The script cleverly uses this façade to draw a sharp contrast with the true natures of its protagonists. So much so that when the action kicks into high gear after the crucial reveal, it’s all the more powerful because of the “normal” set-up.
It took me awhile to finally see MR & MRS SMITH. It wasn’t because of the whole hoopla over the Brad-Angie-Jen thing. That’s none of my business, or anyone else’s but the trio who were involved. No, the reason I never got around to seeing it was simply lack of interest in my part. The trailers were okay, but just never really hinted at the movie’s electricity. Nor did they even begin to tap the considerable chemistry between its leads.
We’ve also discussed the elusive thing that is chemistry. What cause some screen couples to explode, others to ignite, others to flicker reasonably, and many to simply fail to light up at all. The degree of chemistry between the leads of a film, whatever the genre, can sometimes make or break film. Our last review was the solid and enjoyable Katherine Heigl vehicle 27 DRESSES. It’s only real shortcoming was the lack of any real spark between Heigl and co-star James Marsden. Contrast this lukewarm connection with the one between the lead couple of the review before that one, CAPTAIN AMERICA. In that film, Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell essayed a touching and resonant kinship that was helped considerably by their magnetic chemistry. So much so that the “love that dare not speak its name” romance between Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter is one of the things many people best remember about that movie.
I’m happy to report that with our latest review, MR & MRS SMITH, we have another example of a screen couple who set the silver screen on fire - figuratively and almost literally. The chemistry between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie is so potent here that it is almost unsurprising that their characters’ combustible union spilled over into real life. As I said, it’s their business. But the fact remains, this is one electric couple. Pitt and Jolie’s characters’ interactions are so compelling that they easily paper over the story’s inherent flaws - specifically, in the area of believability. Note that similarly-themed films like THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT and KILLERS didn’t fare quite as well. Put simply, those films’ leads didn’t have the hypnotic chemistry that Pitt and Jolie generate with stunning ease.
The rest of the cast is similary effective, with the standouts being Vince Vaughn and Adam Brody. Vaughn isn’t really acting so much as flaunting his usual “sexy spaz” schtick. But he does it well. Same thing with Brody, who is basically playing the same character here that he played in the TV series THE OC. But, as with Vaughn, he does it well. Both Brody and Vaughn have scenes of comic gold. Especially hilarious is Danz’s encounter with John and Jane.
Doug Liman stages the action with the same confidence and grace that brough to THE BOURNE IDENTITY. Of course, the action here is decidedly less serious. That doesn’t make it any less exciting, though. And entertaining - especially an extended sequence where John and Jane have a “domestic dispute” in a mini-van while trying to escape and fend off some very determined pursuers.
My only quibble with the film is its somewhat abrupt ending. I cannot help but feel that some scenes may have been deleted. If Liman and his writers had found a more graceful way to bring us to that very funny last scene, MR & MRS SMITH would be near-perfect. As it is, though, it is very good enough to be considered classic entertainment.
Check out that fight scene…. Now this is foreplay - and chemistry:
