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MR. AND MRS. SMITH by Tom McCurrie
Though its stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have received oodles of press the last few months about their so-called romance, the comic action-thriller MR. AND MRS. SMITH has more going for it than that. In fact, as charismatic as the title stars are, and they both dish out tsunamis of sex appeal, SMITH's greatest strength is its screenplay. It's also its greatest weakness.
(Warning: Spoilers Ahead!)
If the strongest thing about SMITH, directed by Doug Liman and written by Simon Kinberg, is the script, then the strongest thing about the script is the premise itself. SMITH is about two assassins who get married but remain oblivious to each other's true profession. As the years pass, their marriage sinks into a malaise -- until they're set-up to kill each other. This is a superb high-concept: fresh (PRIZZI'S HONOR meets THE WAR OF THE ROSES), easy to pitch (which means it's easy to market, as the PRIZZI'S HONOR meets THE WAR OF THE ROSES logline indicates) and very commercial (combining two genres with proven box-office appeal, the action-thriller and the romantic/relationship comedy). Better still, built into the premise is a powerful theme, questioning whether we can ever truly know someone, even those closest to us. And that's a theme to which all audiences can relate. A premise as strong as this can sustain a movie for quite a while, even if the rest of the script is flawed.
And with SMITH, unfortunately, that's very much the case. Plausibility issues slowly eat away at our enjoyment over the pic's two-hour running time. Brad and Angelina (as Mr. and Mrs. Smith) work for two entirely different organizations (which is why they don't realize they're in the same "business"), but we never find out who these organizations are: the CIA, the NSA, Halliburton? This muddle hurts the movie, for even if SMITH's premise is pretty outrageous, the rest of the script needs to be grounded in reality for us to suspend disbelief.
Brad realizes Angelina is an assassin, and vice-versa, when they're assigned the same target. Their covers now blown, professional "ethics" demand they kill all witnesses, even if that happens to be your own husband/wife. But it turns out their respective bosses assigned them the same target on purpose so they would kill each other. Seems they couldn't trust an assassin married to the competition, since one slip of the tongue could give away their true identity. But neither of the Smiths gave away their true identity through five (or six, as one of the film's better jokes goes) years of marriage, so the villains' motivation is rather weak. And why try to kill them now? Why didn't the bad guys try to kill them when they first got married? It's difficult to believe they just discovered the marriage now; a business that specializes in assassinations would definitely do a background check on anyone dating, never mind marrying, one of their employees. Again, all these plotholes pull the audience out of the "reality" of the story, reducing our enjoyment.
Another issue is that the antagonists, Brad and Angelina's treacherous bosses, remain off-screen for the entire movie. Since film is a visual medium, that's a problem. It's difficult to hate the bad guys when you can't see them, and if you don't hate the bad guys, it's harder to root for the good guys to defeat them, keeping us at an emotional distance. Of course, we do see plenty of the villains' henchmen, but these are anonymous, faceless goons, so it's difficult to hate them as well. And as thrilling as the action sequences are, it's much less satisfying to see the good guys defeat the villains' proxies than the villains themselves.
Still, despite these missteps, SMITH remains fairly entertaining for its first two-thirds. That is, until the movie's biggest problem becomes apparent -- the main antagonists aren't defeated. By the beginning of the Third Act, the Smiths realize their bosses have set them up, and instead of leaving the country, they decide to fight back. This is a good way to boost rooting interest; since we don't like to see our protagonists cut and run, these two hottie assassins become much more likable (or as likable as you can be for hired killers). But after the Smiths wipe out an army of thugs sent to kill them (in a ridiculously staged scene where the Smiths stand out in the open and grease the baddies when said baddies all have covered positions) , the picture abruptly ends, the string-pulling bosses left untouched -- and unpunished. The Smiths behave as if they've won, but this doesn't make sense with the main antagonists still around as a threat. True, it's a clever conceit that the Smiths' marriage improves once they stop hiding secrets, like the fact that they're assassins, from each other, but it doesn't make up for the bad guys essentially getting off scot-free, leaving the audience with an annoying lack of closure.
Beginnings are important in movies, since that's how you reel in an audience. But endings are even more important, since that's the last thing the audience remembers when they leave the theatre, and if that last thing is a satisfying tingle, you've got some good word-of-mouth coming. Unfortunately, a finish as frustrating as SMITH's undermines everything that came before: the engaging premise, the star power, the exciting stunts, even Vince Vaughn's hilarious turn as a hit man who still lives with his mother. Nevertheless, if you don't mind paying full price for two-thirds of a fun movie, MR. AND MRS. SMITH is probably worth a look. But if you don't dig that last third, don't say I didn't warn you.
(CORRECTION: In the May 31 article on Robert Towne, I said that his first produced credit was THE TOMB OF LIGEIA [1965]. It was in fact THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH [1960]. Sorry, Bob -- my bad!)
Responses, comments and general two-cents worth can be E-mailed to gillis662000@yahoo.com.
(Note: For all those who missed my past reviews, they're archived on Hollywoodlitsales.com. Just click the link on the main page and it'll take you to the Inner Sanctum. Love them or Hate them at your leisure!)
A graduate of USC's School of Cinema-Television, Tom McCurrie has worked as a development executive and a story analyst. He is a screenwriter living in Los Angeles and is currently working on his first novel.
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