TRASH IN MY EYE No. 94 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
Running time: 115 minutes
MPAA – PG-13 for sequences of violence, intense action, sexual content, and brief strong language
DIRECTOR: Doug Liman
WRITER: Simon Kinberg
PRODUCER: Lucas Foster, Akiva Goldsman, Eric McLeod, Arnon Milchan, and Peter Wachsberger
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Bojan Bazelli
EDITOR: Michael Tronick
ACTION/COMEDY/ROMANCE with elements of a thriller
Starring: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Vince Vaughn, Kerry Washington, Adam Brody Chris Weitz, Rachael Huntley, Michelle Monaghan, and Keith David
The entertainment wing of the news media has been abuzz about the Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie flick, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, directed by Doug Liman, for months now because many believe that the film shoot was where Pitt’s marriage to actress Jennifer Aniston (TV’s “Friends”) fell apart and his are-they/aren’t they relationship with Ms. Jolie began. For a while, it seemed as if the tawdry adultery angle would drown the film, but early favorable reviews kept any alleged hanky-panky from completely overshadowing the film. While Mr. & Mrs. Smith is an unusual mixture of several genres, it is a sassy, faux-witty, action flick with one great car chase scene and a lot of good chemistry between the stars, and I’m certainly glad I paid to see it in a theatre. Ignore the flimsy plot and the empty characters, which aren’t much more than plot props and targets for action violence. Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a star vehicle that you see if you like the stars.
Married for five or six years (that’s a joke in the film), John Smith (Brad Pitt) and Jane Smith (Angelina Jolie) are bored with their quiet, domestic tranquility. The biggest secret that they’re keeping from each other is that they are both assassins for different espionage organizations and are globetrotting and killing for hire behind each other’s back. The couple’s separate lives collide when they bumble upon the same assassination assignment. That causes the spouses to end up as each other’s next hit, but when they chose reconciliation instead of mutually assured destruction, both of their former agencies come gunning for them.
While not as entertaining as Liman’s film Go! (1999) and certainly not on the level of the super-smart, super thriller, The Bourne Identity (2002), Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a unique hybrid. It’s an action comedy, but it also an action romance. It’s an action thriller, but it’s also a romantic, action thriller. Pitt and Ms. Jolie have fine screen chemistry, so the romance is works; some of the comedy comes from their chemistry and timing, but much of it also comes from the cartoonish violence of the shoot-em-up’s and gunplay and the explosions in the film that more often than not are done for comic effect. There is one great car chase in the film and a death match between John and Jane that give the film all the thrills it needs. However, the final battle between the Smith’s and a seemingly endless supply of special operations squads is a bit flat.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are lucky that Liman and writer Simon Kinberg, whose screenplay is a frothy and tasty confection, deliver summer cinematic fun, or the superstar movie duo would have suffered the same meltdown that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez experienced with their “romantically entangled” film, Gigili. Hardcore action junkies may not go for this film, but anyone who likes a different spin on big, loud action films will probably like this.
6 of 10
B
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(2002), influenced by the work of director Douglas Sirk, perhaps, more people will take a look at his work, especially Sirk’s classic, quasi-campy, Imitation of Life. The high soap opera drama was the second film version of Fannie Hurst’s novel of the same title.
has so many melodramatic subplots that it flies all over the place. Will Steve and Lora hook up; will mother and daughter (both pairs) make up; why can’t Sarah be proud of her race; and what’s wrong with Annie’s health? Still, it’s fun to watch this remnant of the old studio system of Hollywood filmmaking and as part of Sirk’s filmography. It’s a Technicolor and melodramatic wallop upside the head – equally parts hilarious and heartbreaking, absurd and real, and archaic and relevant.
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