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For all intents and purposes, couple Jane (Angelina Jolie) and John (Brad Pitt) Smith, appear like
any other couple in a plush suburban American neighborhood. They wear identical bathrobes, brush their teeth at the same time, and share a home-cooked dinner always at
seven. Married "five or six years", they're now seeing a marriage counselor, trying to figure out why the highlight of their conversation never seems to go beyond the color
of their new curtains or the addition of peas to the main dish. Their marriage used to sizzle, but now the only thing that sizzles between them is the steak. They're both
assassins but each keeps the fact from the other: Jane believes John runs his own engineering firm; John thinks Jane owns a similarly harmless company. Comes the day when
John gets an assignment to kill Jane, and Jane, to kill John. Who would want to pit them against each other is anybody's guess.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a first rate kiss-kiss-bang-bang movie that tickles and titillates more than anything else. On its second day of showing, on a Thursday, the movie house is almost filled to capacity—owing to the big names. Pitt and Jolie individually are crowd magnets, together they're—well—bombastic. From their performances as John and Jane, it would seem that all that showbiz babble about their off screen romance is not mere media-hype after all. They don't even need a bed scene to make the screen ooze with sex—their eyes already do it. The snappy dialogue perfectly matches the sleek editing and rapid fire action. The plot is something only a highly imaginative fiction writer can conjure up, but then you don't really see
Mr. & Mrs. Smith for the story but to be entertained by couple's legendary stunts.
After watching a gorgeous house and an entire department store annihilated by enough ammunition to
exterminate the whole of Baghdad, the viewer comes to ask what Mr. & Mrs. Smith
could be trying to say in the crossfire. That honesty is a prerequisite to a good marriage? That sexual chemistry is not enough to keep the sparks flying in a conjugal relationship? That assassins could also fall in love? By the way the story ends it's clear that the couple would rather kiss than kill. Jane and John renew their commitment to their marriage but does this mean a new life with no more murders in the name of espionage? These sophisticated assassins may be a delight to watch but watch against being lulled into thinking it's cool to kill.
(Date Reviewed: 10 June 2005)
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