Directed by: Doug Liman
Starring: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie
Rating:
I'm of two minds about Mr. and Mrs. Smith a.k.a. The Film That Brought Down a Hollywood Marriage. The first mind had a good time with this reasonably entertaining piece of big-budget studio hokum. The film has a number of solid laughs, some well-choreographed action scenes and two incredibly attractive stars whose rumored offscreen chemistry certainly shows up onscreen. In fact, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are essentially the only reason the movie works at all. Their comfort in front of the camera (not to mention around each other) wins the audience over in the first five minutes and keeps them involved throughout. And make no mistake: Mr. and Mrs. Smith is a genuine crowd-pleaser. The audience I saw it with had a great time and I heard more than one person expressing their enjoyment with it as we all exited the theater. Experiences like that always make me realize how skewed press screenings can be. Things that leave a roomful of critics cold can kill with a paying audience. The crowd clearly came to this movie ready and willing to have a good time and the movie gave them that. But my second mind can't help but wonder...is that all there is?
I ask that question because Mr. and Mrs. Smith takes its promising premise--a husband and wife each discover that the other is a master assassin--and plays it in the most generic way possible. Sure it's funny, but it's funny in a disappointingly obvious way. Very little of the material here is actually fresh. For example, the movie opens in a marriage counseling session where John Smith (Pitt) and his wife Jane (Jolie) bicker about when they first met (he says five years, she says six) and what their sex life is like. Not surprisingly, they try in vain to cover up the fact that it's non-existent. Later on, we see them over dinner where John tries to feign interest in his wife's cooking by asking what she added to the main course (answer: peas). These kinds of gags about stale marriages are very familiar, which is probably why the audience responded to them. But even when their true identities are revealed to us, the movie stubbornly sticks to tradition. Hence, Jane keeps her stockpile of weapons in the kitchen (where John never goes), while he keeps his in the tool shed (where she never goes). Wouldn't it have been funnier--not to mention fresher--to switch things up a bit? I understand that they're supposed to be leading a life of the traditional suburban couple, but this seems to be the traditional suburban couple of a decade ago. I expected more of director Doug Liman, who is well-liked among critics for mixing up traditional genres. I'm not a huge Liman supporter myself, but I didn't think he'd make a movie that was so conventional in its sensibility.
It's a credit to the actors that they're able to make this moldy material amusing. They also deserve credit for holding the movie together once it starts to go haywire in its second half. No sooner have John and Jane learned the truth about each other that they are each ordered by their respective agencies to take the other out. This leads to the movie's best scene, a knock-down, drag-out fight in the couple's home. As Pitt and Jolie whale on each other, you can tell they're having a blast. It wouldn't surprise me if this was the scene that convinced them to sign on to the movie in the first place. But once the violence stops the two decide they should work together and take out their employers instead. This leads to an extended series of chase sequences in which John and Jane kill dozens of faceless goons in an effort to stay alive. But who exactly are they working for? And why don't these agencies realize it would be better to have their two top assassins team up instead of eliminate each other? I know it's pointless to ask these questions since the movie clearly doesn't care, but that kind of information would have gone a long way to making this section of the movie more logical. It's especially annoying that the movie doesn't even try to offer us a convincing ending. After the climactic shoot-out in a giant department store, the Smiths manage to kill off the entire squad of assassins sent to get them. Then there's an abrupt cut and the two are back in marriage counseling talking about how great their relationship is now. So are they still assassins? If so, are their former employers dead or did they just decide to leave them alone? There's no attempt to wrap anything up, the movie simply stops. Not only is that bad storytelling, it's more than a little insulting. For some reason, the filmmakers decided they didn't really have to give the audience a real ending. Just give 'em one last funny line and they'll leave the theater satisfied.
And that's the sort of lazy mentality that riles me up about these kinds of films. It's so easy to make an enjoyably dumb movie that makes a lot of money. Hollywood does it every summer and moviegoers (myself included) still go because we do like to be entertained. But if the filmmakers and the studios put some effort into it, these films can actually be really good instead of being, at best, just okay. Several days before seeing Mr. and Mrs. Smith, I saw Batman Begins, which is a great example of how blockbusters don't have to be dumb or lazy to be enjoyable. Christopher Nolan's film isn't without its flaws, but it actually gives audiences a real story to chew on instead of just a string of scenes featuring its stars goofing off for the camera. It's also got an incredible sense of style. In contrast, Mr. and Mrs. Smith looks as generic and impersonal as it feels. I suppose it accomplishes what it sets out to do, which is to entertain, but it could have accomplished much more. Of course, a sizeable portion of the audience probably didn't care about the movie's underachieving attitude--they got what they paid for. But I care. And that's what made my heart sink even as I laughed along with everyone else.
