Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Dir: Doug Liman
2005
Salon called director Doug Liman a hack, but if so, I think he’s a pretty good hack. He knows how to shoot his action sequences, as evidenced by The Bourne Identity. He also knows that in a film like this we want to lock our eyes on the gorgeous being that is Angelina Jolie (and Brad Pitt, I assume, but even the wife found it hard to keep her eyes off Jolie).
Mr. and Mrs. Smith is highly improbable, cartoon malarkey, where neither Smith know that the other is a trained assassin until they’re set up to kill each other. Their marriage is on the skids anyway, and a good duel to the death reignites their passion. “I don’t know whether to fight him or fuck him,” as Jake LaMotta said in Raging Bull–in this film you can do both.
The film is way too long, but at least is chock full of funny little sequences, such as the one where both sit down for a very tense dinner after discovering each others’ secret. Or the anti-SUV jabs when they borrow one for a car chase. Or the squabbling while trying to interrogate a hostage.
There’s plenty of Jolie to gaze at, one of the sexiest stars we have working today, not just because she’s pretty but because she exudes this confidence and charisma. She’s like a femme fatale come unlocked from the punishing film noir universe, set free to walk among other film genres and overturn them.
One thing I enjoyed seeing destroyed was their foul, foul yuppie house, the interior design of which gave me a headache. Heavy, thick materials, too much black marble, oppressive. I would suggest that it was actually the house that soured their marriage and its destruction that brought their hearts back together.