Part "Prizzi's Honor," part "The War of the Roses" and all hogwash, "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" is nothing if not slick.
Correction: Nothing BUT slick.
You have to take the movie's word for it that John (Brad Pitt) and Jane Smith (Angelina Jolie) have no idea what the other earns or how.
It means to be cute and coy about the fact they have been married for five or six years -- a quantity they bicker about regularly but never bother to check.
Both are hit persons for unspecified agencies. When they learn that -- a plot point made quite clear in the trailers and TV spots -- they attack each other, and later legions of faceless aggressors, with tons of high-tech artillery from personally maintained arsenals.
They level a lot of generic New York City locations and other parts of the world without having a single conversation that rises to the level of a coffee klatsch.
The attractiveness of the leading players is the only reason anyone will watch. OK, those hooked on watching interminable bouts of destruction for its own sake will, too.
John and Jane tell an unseen marriage counselor they met in Bogota, Columbia, five or six years earlier when their individual job assignments intersected, fell into bed within minutes and apparently were married shortly thereafter.
He works out in a boxing gym and seems to have a single friend -- his agency supervisor, a mama's boy named Eddie (Vince Vaughn). Their bond and working relationship is as incredible as everything else in the picture.
Jane rappels with co-worker Jasmine (Kerry Washington) and is shown to be the more able-bodied and controlling of the Smiths throughout.
The film is conceived and designed as a live-action cartoon by screenwriter Simon Kinberg, who has two other movies within the space of five months (the recent "XXX: State of the Union," the forthcoming "Fantastic Four"), and directed accordingly by Doug Liman ("Swingers," "The Bourne Identity").
There are virtually no other characters. Certainly Jasmine has no dimension, nor does Benjamin Danz (Adam Brody), an undefined target whose fate triggers most of the movie. Benjamin wears a "Fight Club" T-shirt but -- it just keeps getting cuter and coyer, folks -- never notices that John looks a lot like the star of that picture, Brad Pitt.
"Mr. & Mrs. Smith," which has no relationship to Alfred Hitchcock's 1941 screwball comedy, neutralizes any possibility of suspense because it makes all too clear that the leads are imperishable and that their minimal scratches never last longer than one scene.
Pitt and Jolie interact smoothly, but they haven't nearly enough good banter to support an action comedy that drones on for two whole hours. Can you imagine Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn wading into this one⢠William Powell and Myrna Loy⢠The Road Runner and Wily E. Coyote⢠Additional Information:
Details
'Mr. & Mrs. Smith'Director: Doug Liman
Stars: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Vince Vaughn
MPAA rating: PG-13 for sequences of violence, intense action, sexual content and brief strong language
