Mr. & Mrs. Smith



The one thing you're likely to read in every review of Mr. & Mrs. Smith is how much chemistry Brad Pitt and Agelina Jolie. In fact I suspect they have entire other physical sciences between them as well, including biology if you believe the tabloids. They do make an engaging screen couple.


"Paparazzi at 10 o'clock!"

Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a strange mix of elements from Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941), Prizzi's Honor (1985), The War of the Roses (1989), and The Killer (1989). John (Pitt) and Jane Smith (Jolie) appear to be a boring, if impossibly attractive, upper class suburban couple, but they're both secretly super-assassins. And when I say "secretly," I mean even from each other. Needless to say it wouldn't be much of a movie if the Smiths weren't assigned to kill the same person and turned against each other, so that's what happens. The Smiths turn on each other, then reconcile, and finally end up fighting the people who used to employ them. It's pretty easy to see where the movie is going, though there is one twist that explains some of the more unlikely parts of the plot.

The middle part of the movie, where the Smiths are at each other's throats, is dodgy motive-wise, but the entire movie is really funny. It doesn't make the mistake War of the Roses did and make either spouse insufferable; rather, John and Jane each have a character fault (he's self-absorbed, she's competitive) and they play out over the course of the movie. Director Doug Liman, who was once considered the new face of independent film, continues his transformation into an action direction, again filming action scenes that wouldn't be out of place in Hong Kong action movie, including several visual quotes from John Woo.

Posted: Sun - June 12, 2005 at      

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