Mr. & Mrs. Smith
(2005) dir. Doug Liman
viewed: 12/13/2005
Not as bad as everyone said. Certainly not a success, however. Doug Liman is a weird director with a decent if not robust resume. I actually think that he’s maybe just making the wrong kinds of movies.
I am not sure how cynical Mr. & Mrs. Smith is or if it’s got a subversive side or not or if it sort of undercuts all that with an easily predicted happy ending. It’s a critique on marriage and relationships and mediocrity, I suppose. And it’s got the two people who in terms of contemporary pop culture, would be deemed pretty much tops in the sex food chain for their respective genders (not my opinion, just an observation of the cult of “personalities”). Is it their “fake” marriage and “fake” middle class lifestyle that dulls them into an unhappy marriage that is purely gorgeous on the surface (beautiful, successful people, big house, great careers)? Or is it that the mediocrity of middle class is inherently soulless and boring? Motherhood is highly shunned by a very unmaternal Jolie in one scene at a neighborhood party. In reality, they are ace assassins, each better than the other, sexy, top of the line, in their secret “real” lives. And when they can finally expose to each other the fact that they are not these dull, boring middle class selves, and that they share much more in common, their sex lives improve and so does their marriage. Is it a critique? Does it have teeth or is it muddled? There is more here than most people would give credit for, but not necessarily enough to really recommend it, really.
