Welcome back! This weekend I watched a movie with some friends in a TV lounge in the basement of my dorm building. Given that those TVs only have cable, we were somewhat limited in our choices. We decided to watch the only movie that was starting when we got there, Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Perhaps more important than a plot summary is knowing that this is the Brangelina movie. You know, the one that made Brad Pitt divorce Jennifer Anniston for Angelina Jolie. Well, if you didn’t, now you do.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie star in this action movie about two married assassins that don’t know the other is an assassin until they run into each other on the same mission. Naturally, they spend the rest of the movie trying to kill each other.
The movie opens with Pitt’s character in counseling discussing his marital problems with Jolie’s character. Soon, you see the two interacting and it is quite clear that they are not happily married. It’s more awkward than anything. They end up going to their separate ways to work—at two different assassination companies—and receive a new mission: kill Benjamin Danz.
The two assassins end up shooting at each other in the desert thinking the other is a target. Once each of them identify the other, they have a highway shootout and attempt complicated strategies to take each other out. Eventually, after a very clever escape from one of these attempts by Pitt’s character, they end up at a fancy restaurant. They soon make their way to the dance floor. Cue the sexual tension. They strip each other of their weapons and initiate a truce. Except, it’s not really a truce.
After the dance, it becomes apparent that the two have feelings for each other, despite their marriage being “strictly business”. After a few more assassination attempts, the two give into their feelings. But there is no hope for postcoital bliss because a plot twist that threatens both their lives throws them into action. This time on the same team.
I enjoyed this move. The cinematography was just as attractive as the main characters, and the action was great to watch. Additionally, some of the assassination escapes were very clever, and I was not expecting the big twist at the end. Overall, the plot is a bit basic, but the movie combines romance, action, and comedy in a very fun way.