Mr. And Mrs. Smith Review

"Mr. And Mrs. Smith" reviews

Movie

Mr. And Mrs. Smith

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2009-09-21 21:30:30

Rating

3.5/5

Provider

CinemaSource

Review

Mr. & Mrs. Smith--about a bored married couple who find out they are trained killers gunning for each other--is a thoroughly enjoyable ride from start to finish. Honestly, nothing says loving like blasting a shotgun hole through your spouse's insides.

Story

Couples therapy is for the birds. Trying to annihilate one another with high-tech weaponry is the best way to spice up a dull marriage. So say John (Brad Pitt) and Jane Smith (Angelina Jolie), a seemingly ordinary suburban couple stuck in a six-year, lifeless marriage. They learn this helpful marriage tip firsthand after discovering each other's ''little'' secret. Seems they are actually two of the world's most deadly assassins, but they work for competing companies. Yeah, you'd think something like that would have come up at some point while eating at the breakfast nook. Of course, once the secret is out, there's no turning back. Now hired to assassinate each other, the fun really begins as the once-bitter Smiths discover a newfound source of excitement in their marriage. Oh boy, do they ever. So, does one of them kill the other to keep their job? Or should the two hottest people on the planet--after shooting up their house and beating the holy whaley out of each other--reconcile and get blood all over each other while having steamy sex? You decide.

Acting

OK, let's just get it over with. Whatever may have happened off set between Jolie and Pitt, there's no denying that they indeed have an immediate, palpable connection on screen. From the moment they appear as Mr. and Mrs. Smith, sitting in a therapist's office discussing their marriage, you can feel the chemistry oozing off of them, even in their estrangement. Maybe it's real, but it may also be a testament to their talent. Sure, Jolie and Pitt can play professional assassins, exchanging rapid gunfire, in their sleep. But painting a convincing picture of a strained marriage? That's a different story. Between the bickering, the long silences, the tense politeness, even finishing each other's sentences, these highly capable actors rise to the occasion as the married Smiths. And to think, Nicole Kidman was originally slotted to play Mrs. Smith. That would have been an entirely different film. For a little extra comic relief, there's the always hilarious Vince Vaughn, as John's colleague. He's a mild-mannered fellow who lives with his mother because she's the only woman he's ever ''trusted.'' The quippy exchanges between Vaughn and Pitt are classic. ''Women. They all try to kill you, slowly, painfully, cripplingly…,'' he warns John. I wouldn't say all that. Hand me that gun, please.

Direction

First-time writer Simon Kinberg came up with Mr. & Mrs. Smith for his Master thesis at Columbia University Film School. Several drafts later, and with a little help from the Academy Award-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman and director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity), the real Smith was born. Liman has a good handle on all the action, especially in choreographing the penultimate confrontation between the Smiths in their beautifully manicured home. Firing guns, throwing punches and knives and blowing stuff up just feels good, doesn't it? But you do have to throw logic out the window when you're in the Smith world. Come on, the fact that these two highly trained über-killers never knew each other's secret professions seems more than a little farfetched, especially if we are to believe they--and the competing companies they work for--are as high tech, professional and deadly as they say they are. No matter. The implausibility of it all rarely detracts from watching two of the sexiest movie stars around pound the living crap out of one another--and then kiss to makeup. Good stuff.

Bottom Line

Media hype over its hotter-than-hot leads notwithstanding, Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a War of the Roses meets Prizzi's Honor adrenaline rush that rarely lets up. Bring the spouse and live vicariously.

Movie

MR AND MRS SMITH

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2005-10-25 21:09:37

Provider

Review

Mr And Mrs Smith has had more advance publicity than any new film this year other than the final instalment of Star Wars. But little of that has been to do with the movie itself, but rather the spark in the much-rumoured relationship between leads Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

In this urbane comedy directed by Doug Liman (who made the hipster comedy Swingers before hitting action-packed pay dirt with Bourne Supremacy) they don't play adulterous lovers, but rather a married couple, each working as a hired assassin without the other's knowledge. But when they're contracted to rub each other out it's time to open up about their extracurricular activities.

The film has borrowed its title from an old Hitchcock screwball comedy and its plot from John Huston's '80s hit, Prizzi's Honour, in which Jack Nicholson and Angelica Huston played the leads. But it excels with the kind of sharp, sophisticated one-liners that used to be the preserve of Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. Pitt and Jolie are surprisingly good as the leads (it seems like ages since Pitt's been asked to do anything but pose in pictures and the dialogue here drives Ocean's 11 and 12 back into the sea).

This being the noughties, the pyrotechnics aren't confined to the smouldering couple but injected to whip the action along. That unnecessary distraction aside, Mr And Mrs Smith is a welcome diversion from the soap opera that governs the two stars private lives. Who knows, maybe one day it will be remembered chiefly on its own plentiful merits?