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[manfromjapan]

Directed by Doug Liman

RATING: ***1/2

MR. AND MRS. SMITH is always going to be remembered as the film where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie met and fell in love, breaking up Pitt's marriage to Jennifer Aniston (TV's 'Friends') in the process. It is a film which you will probably enjoy if you take a big swallow of your disbelief and enjoy it for what it is - an erratic action-comedy with some funny insights into married life.

John (Pitt) and Jane Smith (Jolie) have been married six years and their marriage is getting stale. What they don't realise until too late is that they are both professional assassins, and that their respective employers are going to force them to make some important choices...

The film is really split into three parts. The first part is a funny, perceptive comedy about the realities of marriage - the mixed messages, the secrets, the frustrations. Arguably, this is the part that works the best because writer Simon Kinberg 's writing is quite wry and subtle and the leads' chemistry comes off the best. The second part is a dark action comedy a la THE WAR OF THE ROSES (1989), where the acrimony sets in once they learn the truth about each other and they halfheartedly try to kill each other. Liman doesn't really get the tone right here, as he needed to establish their real love for each other in more detail for these scenes to provide the dark counterpart. I don't think the makers intended to make a deep or emotional film - but it would have been a better film if they had chosen to do so. The final part is a standard, expertly realised shoot-em-up action flick with Pitt and Jolie taking on their enemies singlehandedly.

Pitt and Jolie DO have chemistry, but it is fair to say that it doesn't exactly explode off the screen. They obviously enjoy each other, but if one was to compare them to Clooney and Lopez in OUT OF SIGHT (1998), for example, they come up more than a little short. (I found Pitt's demeanor to be particularly smug in this film.) Vince Vaughn provides comic support as Pitt's odd friend...is he paying homage to his PSYCHO (1998) role by playing a character who lives with a mother we never see? (Vaughn of course appeared in Liman's SWINGERS, 1996). Michelle Monaghan (MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III, 2006) is unrecognisable in a small role fixing a damaged laptop for Pitt.

MR. AND MRS. SMITH has some funny lines (mostly concerning marriage), some great if impersonal action scenes and has a lot of energy, partly because of Liman's signature handheld shooting style. The shifts in tone are a little jarring but help to give it a unique personality. It is a fun movie that frustratingly could have been even better if more attention had been paid to streamlining and deepening the script.

Trivia - (One could write a book...) Pitt had to return to film additional scenes after completing OCEAN'S TWELVE (2004) hence the fact he has the same haircuts in both films. Interestingly, the same thing happened to Matt Damon with THE BOURNE IDENTITY (2002) and OCEAN'S ELEVEN (2001). Ironically, the former film was also directed by Doug Liman.

Liman and Kinberg are involved in a TV series based on the film which will debut on US TV in January 2007.

Pitt's co-star was originally Nicole Kidman, who had to bow out because of her busy schedule. Pitt was ready to quit, but was attracted to the idea of acting opposite Jolie.

Vaughn, Pitt's friend in real life, is now Jennifer Aniston's boyfriend (!).

Keith David and Angela Bassett provide the voices of Jolie and Pitt's bosses. A scene was filmed revealing their faces; an alternate ending had Terence Stamp and Jacqueline Bissett being revealed as the bad guys instead.

William Fichtner (Liman's GO, 1999) provides the voice of the marriage counsellor uncredited.

When Pitt tells Jolie he killed Jean-Luc Gespar, he is referring to Vincent Cassel's character in OCEAN'S TWELVE.

Adam Brody wears a FIGHT CLUB (1999) T-shirt when he is interrogated by the leads.

Will Smith and Gwen Stefani were also considered for the leads when it looked like Pitt and Kidman were out.

Dennis Quaid and Kathleen Turner played secret agent spouses in UNDERCOVER BLUES (1993).

MR. AND MRS. SMITH is available on R1, R2 and Japanese DVD. An 'unrated' version of the film is available on R1. It is a little sexier and has some slightly longer scenes, but is otherwise no different. This edition does include the aforementioned deleted scenes though.