Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a 2005 American romantic action comedy film, directed by Doug Liman and written by Simon Kinberg. The original music score was composed by John Powell. The film stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as a bored married couple who learn that they are both assassins hired by competing agencies to kill each other. A novelisation of the film was written by Cathy East Dubowski.
Plot
The film opens with John (Brad Pitt) and Jane Smith (Angelina Jolie) answering questions during marriage counseling. The couple has been married for "five or six" years, but their marriage is suffering to the point that they cannot remember the last time they had sex. They tell the story of their first meeting in Bogotá, Colombia, where they met while both were secretly on the run from Colombian authorities. They quickly fell in love and were married. John later states that Jane "looked like Christmas morning" to him on the day they met.
In reality, however, John and Jane are both skilled assassins working for different firms, both among the best in their field, but both with very different methods of assassination with Jane working out thorough plans and John taking a less analytical approach. Each are concealing their true profession from their spouse. Under these cover stories, John and Jane balance their apparently mundane marriage — which both of them find after a few years to be growing dull and suffocating — with their secretive work. When both are assigned to kill Benjamin "The Tank" Danz, they encounter each other on the job and botch the hit. Believing each had been sent to stop the other from completing their mission, their employers order one Smith to eliminate the other.
After a few "mild" attempts on each other's lives, fueled by a mutual sense of betrayal, the marital spat culminates in an elaborately choreographed, high-octane fight in the Smith house. After a long, evenly-matched fight, with their house shot to shambles, they wind up with guns in each other's faces. John balks, and lays his gun down; Jane finds she cannot shoot her spouse either, and both succumb to their love instead. Mr. and Mrs. Smith reunite and rediscover each other.
However, the newly-rekindled Smith partnership is quickly threatened by their employers, who have now decided to eliminate the couple. John's best friend and coworker, Eddie (Vince Vaughn), turns down a bounty of $400,000 for each Smith, but John and Jane find themselves under fire from an army of assassins. Fending off an attack which blows up their house, the Smiths "borrow" their neighbor's minivan and successfully destroy three pursuing armored cars of attackers, all while bickering over their fighting styles and newly-discovered personal secrets.
After meeting with Eddie, the Smiths decide to fight together to preserve their marriage. They kidnap Danz from his high-security prison in order to give their employers something they want more than the Smiths. However, Danz reveals that he was merely bait, hired jointly by their employers after it was discovered that the Smiths were married, in the hopes of having one Smith kill the other.
John and Jane forgo their separate contingency plans and make their stand together. In the final fight scene of the film, the Smiths — now working smoothly together as a team — defeat an extended attack by a large number of armed forces during a long shoot-out inside a department store.
The film ends with the couple meeting the marriage counselor, where the happy Smiths state how much their marriage has thrived, realizing how happy they really are.
Cast
Reception
Box office
As of October 26, 2009, the film has grossed approximately $478,336,279 worldwide.[1]
Critics
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 58 percent of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 189 reviews, with the consensus that "although this action-romance suffers from weak writing and one too many explosions, the chemistry generated by onscreen couple Pitt and Jolie is palpable enough to make this a thoroughly enjoyable summer action flick."
Colombian reception
Less than four weeks after its release in Colombia, the General Secretary of the City Hall in Bogotá, Enrique Borda, sent a letter of protest to the director Doug Liman. In the letter he states that:
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It is evidenced, beyond any doubt, that the director and his production crew show a total level of ignorance by portraying [Bogotá] as incipient [...], primitive, with scarce hotel infrastructure, dominated by poverty, depressed, disorganized, with high levels of violence; in conclusion, totally chaotic and not attractive at all. |
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Borda also points out in his text that Bogotá was awarded with the title of "City of Peace" by the Unión de Ciudades Capitales Iberoamericanas (UCCI) and was declared "World Book Capital 2007" by UNESCO.
Music
Two soundtrack albums were released from the film: a film score composed by John Powell and a soundtrack with songs used in the film. The albums were released at different times to avoid confusion, the former was released on June 28 and the latter on June 7, 2005.
Television series
In January 2006, ABC announced that a television series was being produced based upon the movie. Writer Simon Kinberg and director Doug Liman were reunited to adapt the movie for television, and Jordana Brewster and Martin Henderson were hired in the roles played by Jolie and Pitt, respectively.Although a pilot was filmed, ABC did not order the series.
Home media
A two-disc unrated version of the film was released on DVD on June 6, 2006. On the original DVD version during a commentary with the director, he mentions that he was not able to use as much sex and violence as they had originally filmed to meet the PG-13 rating.
References
External links
