Cast:
John Smith: Brad Pitt
Jane Smith: Angelina Jolie
Running time -- 120 minutes [approx]
The story begins with John (Brad Pitt) and Jane (Angelina Jolie) talking to an unseen therapist about their stale marriage. After five years of married life, sameness has set in, romance is long gone, and communication has become silent. The counsellor is out of shot - uncertainly insisting that their relationship is fine, and they just need a ’’tune-up’’.
What each has to learn about the other yet is that both are highly trained assassins for competing interests. Their mutual mission is just the thing to put the spark back into their relationship.
And as irony would have it, the sparks come when the couple is at open war, because they are assigned to perform the same hit by their competing firms.
John and Jane mess up, blow their covers, and are ordered to assassinate each other within 48 hours. But they are still trying to sue for peace, and then back together again, with war threatening to re-erupt. When Angelina throws herself from the driver’s seat of a moving car they’re both in, in order to kill him, poor Brad is seen moaning, ’’We need to talk’’ out of the rear windshield as it crashes through a fence. Later, they have a painful discussion about their sexual track records.
The couple actually gets to dance a symbolic tango in an exotic Manhattan restaurant, before ultimately breaking into cartoon violence. Angelina confesses everything to her husband as they cynically swoop and dip. ’’Satisfied?’’ she finally asks archly. ’’Not for years, ’’ he snaps back.
This action-comedy film ’’Mr. & Mrs. Smith’’ succeeds only when it focuses on its lead actors, who trade verbal punches. Whenever Mr. Smith (Brad Pitt) and Mrs. Smith (Angelina Jolie) are on screen together, their chemistry makes up for a rather wafer-thin plot.
Although the picture loses a bit of steam toward the end, it’s still an enjoyable ride. However, the film loses its course when fulfilling the action obligation of the current genre. The action scenes are loud and at time mindlessly violent. Thankfully, the comedy half is much better. There are times when this film is genuinely funny (only in the scenes with Mr. and Ms. Smith) and times when it is not.
Overall ’’Mr. & Mrs. Smith’’ is dumb fun. It’s the kind of film you won’t regret paying money to see, enjoy with pop-corn & forget after you come out of theater.