Before I had even sat down to watch Mr and Mrs Smith, I already felt that I had made up my mind. The Brad, Jen and Angelina love triangle had overshadowed and promote the film at the same time. I was expecting to press play and be able to watch their affair unfold. I was not disappointed, but I was pleasantly surprised.
John and Jane Smith (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) are a normal married couple, living a normal life in a normal suburb, working normal jobs...well, if you can call secretly being assassins "normal". But neither Jane nor John knows about their spouse's secret, until they are surprised to find each other as targets! But on their quest to kill each other, they learn a lot more about each other than they ever did in five (or six) years of marriage.
The films opening instantly tells us of their rocky marriage as we find them at a marriage counsellor and when asked how often they have sex, Jane responds “I don’t understand the question.” This scene, and the many that follow, portray the Smiths as a typical couple whose marriage has gone dry. They live together, eat together, sleep together and exchange small talk but otherwise practically live separate lives. This typical dead in the water marriage, however, is soon contrasted when they go to kill a mark .
Pitt tricks his way into their confidence before shooting, while Jolie disguises herself as the marks hired escort, dressed in a black shiny PVC S&M style outfit that will certainly set a few mens...hearts...throbbing, and breaks the marks neck. After they have both killed their marks, they get back home and go to their neighbours party. Throughout the film Jolie is dressed in tigt or sexy and revealing outfits with many face shots of the sexy pout and big eyes. Being a woman, I find it puts a slight damper on the film, especially since Pitt is always fully clothed and doesn’t have a single topless moment. However, you musn’t forget that this is still an action film at its heart and so it must cater to its male-orientated audience with Jolies legs and lips.
This seems to be a recurring theme in the film: traditional and typical followed by or entwined with the dangerous and daring. The Smiths married life is made as typical, and dull, as possible from the outset to create an enormous contrast with their lives as assassins.
Besides the most obvious showcase of this - John and Jane Smith have the most common and uninteresting names in the English language and are assassins – I think my favourite scene illustrates this point perfectly. During a flashback of the beginning of their relationship, John is discussing his love for Jane with his commitment scared best friend Vince Vaughn. Vaughn tries to convince him that he may think he loves Jane, but really she is an evil witch who is going to suck out his soul. Quite the typical manly conversation. The contrast? They do this while John fights a man ten times his size and is often smack to the floor or has his head locked between the huge guys thighs (not as erotic as it sounds, ladies). While Pitt has his man to man with Vaughn, Jolie and supportive best friend Kerry Washington climb a mountain side and discuss is Jane is definitely sure that he’s the one. While the contrast creates many a humerous, but not quite laugh out loud, scene it can also become tiresome.
Vaughn plays his typical character in the film: anti-women, lives with his mother and talks out of his backside as if he is making an excellent point. Of course he is the films comedy character and he does so very well, but other than a few laughs he brings little substance to the film.
As the plot unfolds, so does Pitt and Jolies marriage as they are forced to redo every conversation they’ve ever had, but this time telling the truth. Each key section of the film could be considered a stage in their own personal marriage counselling with the end being a repaired relationship or failure and one of them kills the other.
Pitt and Jolie’s passion was as I had expected: excellent on the verge of real. At one point, the lust in the films sex scene hit such a height that the passion tipped over the edge and I found myself wondering if they even had to act like they had chemistry anymore. On the other hand, they also played the role of bored married couple who don’t love each other anymore very well.
As with every action film it is abundant with fight scenes, often between John and Jane. I was impressed by the fast paced excitement but there was nothing that hadn’t been done before and it was all so well timed that it lost some of its edge.
Mr and Mrs Smith has an interesting plot and is a decent enough film with well acted characters and many good fight scenes. Unfortunately the real life drama of the Pitt-Jolie affair often dulls their sparkling performances and from time to time you forget you’re watching an action and feel more like you’re watching marriage counselling.
Robyn xxx
