Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
Directed by Doug Liman
A husband and wife struggle to keep their marriage alive until they realize they are both secretly working as assassins. Now, their respective assignments require them to kill each other.
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18 films that influenced Mr. & Mrs. Smith
What critics say influenced Mr. & Mrs. Smith
And at this point, it'd be easy to call this a cop-out in terms of theme -- if this is a satirical black comedy about marital frustrations, it sure seems optmistic (unlike, say, The War of the Roses or even American Beauty, which lead themselves to destructive but effective conclusions).
Director Doug Liman, who showed a flair for combining action, drama, and metaphor in The Bourne Identity, cant find the note of irony that worked for Prizzis Honor and The War of the Roses, so he settles for the high-tech gimmickry of True Lies.
And then, in a quite violent about-face, we’re meant to find it humorous when they turn homicidal on each other (it’s not unheard of – Danny DeVito’s The War of the Roses managed the trick quite nicely).
The ensuing battle of the A-list celebrities has some of the harshness of The War of the Roses in which Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner stuck it to one another with true venom.
From there, the film turns into a more action-filled, nastier but ultimately sexier spin on both "The War of the Roses" and "Prizzi's Honor."
That's where Mr. and Mrs. Smith finds its footing as an explosive, guns-blazing variation of The War of the Roses.
The easiest film to compare this to is James Cameron’s True Lies, which mostly got it right.
Director Doug Liman, who showed a flair for combining action, drama, and metaphor in The Bourne Identity, cant find the note of irony that worked for Prizzis Honor and The War of the Roses, so he settles for the high-tech gimmickry of True Lies.
It may be that neither star wanted to stray too far from their image, but "Smith" never quite reaches the heights of great comedy or great action the way James Cameron's "True Lies" did.
The premise is simple enough: think War of the Roses meets True Lies.
"Mr. & Mrs. Smith" tries for the feel of "True Lies" (a far superior film).
The same essential concept fuels His Girl Friday (Grant and Rosalind Russell), The Philadelphia Story (Grant and Katharine Hepburn), and, in fact, the Alfred Hitchcock oddity Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard).
The same essential concept fuels His Girl Friday (Grant and Rosalind Russell), The Philadelphia Story (Grant and Katharine Hepburn), and, in fact, the Alfred Hitchcock oddity Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard).
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Another great scene takes place in one of those big-box stores you see all over suburbia, a setting whose Middle American vibe gives director Doug Liman ample opportunity to have fun while staging the film's exciting, violent and deadpan-witty climax, which evokes everything from "The Wild Bunch" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" to the "Kill Bill" films.
…that dates back to a 1920s Arthur Richman play, The Awful Truth, which was filmed twice before finding its classic incarnation as a star vehicle for Cary Grant and Irene Dunne in 1937.
Another great scene takes place in one of those big-box stores you see all over suburbia, a setting whose Middle American vibe gives director Doug Liman ample opportunity to have fun while staging the film's exciting, violent and deadpan-witty climax, which evokes everything from "The Wild Bunch" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" to the "Kill Bill" films.
The Thin Man (1934) still stands as the 70 year-old pinnacle, and thoughDoug Liman's Mr. & Mrs. Smith is not nearly that good, it's enough funthat it may become a favorite of husbands and wives in years to come.
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From there, the film turns into a more action-filled, nastier but ultimately sexier spin on both "The War of the Roses" and "Prizzi's Honor."
After all, this isn't actually a black comedy like Prizzi's Honor or War of the Roses.
There's the grain of a good idea here, which has been explored in other, better movies like "Prizzi's Honor," but Liman and Kinberg seem less interested in story and character than in quick cuts, stunts and double entendres.
The same essential concept fuels His Girl Friday (Grant and Rosalind Russell), The Philadelphia Story (Grant and Katharine Hepburn), and, in fact, the Alfred Hitchcock oddity Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard).