Till Death Do They Part
MR. & MRS. SMITH

RATING: B-

Starring Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Vince Vaughn, Adam Brody Kerry Washington. Music by John Powell. Edited by Michael Tronick, Production Designer Jeff Mann, Director of Photography Bojan Bozelli, Executive Producer Eric Fieg, Produced by Akiva Goldsman, Lucas Foster, Eric McLeod, Patrick Wachsberger, Arnon Milchan, Written By Simon Kinberg. Directed by Doug Liman.

Rated PG-13, Running Time 111 mins., 2.40 to 1 Anamorphic Scope Aspect Ratio.

What do you get when Lara Croft and Tyler Durden face off? Well, besides a huge media scandal and the fact that the project almost fell through due to Nicole Kidman dropping out as the female lead, the venture known as "Mrs. and Mrs. Smith" is a rather entertaining enterprise. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie bring their respective acting chops and sex appeal to this rather engaging tale of love, marriage and murder. Well, maybe not murder, but there is quite a bit of killing and even though the victims get what's coming to them, this is a PG-13 action/comedy so the deaths are rather tame. The players: Brad and Angelina. The premise: bored husband and wife discover they're both top notch assassins. The execution: the right dash of flavor for this popcorn summer movie season.

The marriage of suburbanites John and Jane Smith has become just as plain and generic as their names. He's a contractor running a small business out of Williamsburg, Brooklyn and she's the head of a high tech computer firm in the heart of New York City. Their once hot marriage got off to a spicy start with a chance meeting in Bogotá, Colombia, but after five (or six) years they've become rather bored and are hoping that meetings with a marriage counselor (a nice off-screen vocal performance from William Fichtner) will salvage what they have. It's not that they don't love each other; it’s just that things between them have become rather familiar and routine. The fact of the matter is that they really don't know each other at all.

Pitt and Jolie are actually highly trained assassins for two of the world's most secret organizations. It's painfully revealed to them both when they each try to kill Adam Brody at the same time. No, it's not because Pitt is angry at Brody for wearing a "Fight Club" t-shirt and Jolie hates watching "The O.C." Brody happens to be a federal witness that both their employers want dead and once they discover each other's true professions their next targets are each other. "You're like Macy's and Gimbal's," Pitt's wacky partner Vince Vaughn tells them. "If you were the "We" channel, she would be whatever network goes up against the "We" channel.” Naturally in this spy game the solution would be to take the competition out – even if that competition happens to be your spouse.

A little cat and mouse deception begins when Pitt fears that Jolie may have poisoned the pot roast and vegetables she's cooked him for dinner, but the gloves start to come off and the situation gets incendiary when the discover there can be only one winner. They're both a little emotionally hurt at each other's ruse, but because they're professionals a little emotion doesn't keep them from pulling punches in a shoot-out and knock-out, drag-down fight that results in the destruction of their home. What the hell, their house needed a little remodeling anyway just like their marriage, which appears to get emotionally and sexually reinvigorated after these two have beat the crap out of one another. Of course a marriage between two agents is a no-no in their line of work and if they don't take each other out their respective agencies will do it for them.

With a predictable popcorn romp such as this we know that Pitt and Jolie will team up against their employers and that's where the film falls short. What's sorely missing is a third act. We know these two work for top-notch organizations that are headed by mysterious figures. Actually those mysterious leaders happen to be Angela Bassett (no larger here than she is on Alias) as Pitt and Vaughn's boss and Keith David as the head of Jolie and colleague Kerry Washington's team of female spies that put the cast of "D.E.B.S." to shame because they wear suits. The question remains whether or not the groups they work for are evil or just government agencies and Pitt and Jolie don’t even seem to care. What was needed was a face on these organizations to present a real threat to our two leads once they team up. I don't mean just a physical face either, even though only Bassett's and David's voices are heard. I'm talking about some strong opposition that ties into the plot and consists of more than just hired hit squads instructed to take Pitt and Jolie out. Maybe a villainous threat that all the players share in common that only our two leads can take down in exchange for their freedom. Brody initially appears to play a similar role, but it doesn't even come close. Thankfully this story element is the film's only flaw and it isn't fatal.

Chemistry is a word that I see too often, but it's suitably appropriate to describe the force between Pitt and Jolie. Even though they have managed to make headlines lately, the sparks between them can not solely be attributed to what they may share off-screen, but their talents as actors. Pitt can be wooden at times, but I consistently enjoy his humorous reactions and his knack for comedy. Jolie has never fared well at comedy but rather as a dramatic actress. Her confidence and straight forward response to Pitt's wry humor is just the right counter balance to his performance that is needed. If she tried to play funny against Pitt it wouldn’t have worked. Much of that is left up to Vaughn who always manages to take everyday humanity and turn it into comedy. As Pitt’s partner, he chooses to live with his mother because she's the only woman he's ever trusted.

The fans of two of Hollywood's most gorgeous people aren't coming to see these two just to find out if they have comedic chops. They wanna get a glimpse of some physical interaction and they will not be disappointed. A noteworthy scene involves some passion after a tango and the sharing of a few shots of tequila in the rain, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. After a pretty brutal fist-fight between the two of them, the result could only be a passionate roll in the sheets – or rather a roll amongst the broken glass and furniture. The discovery of their true professions not only makes Pitt and Jolie angry at being deceived, but it gives their mundane lives a much needed shot of adrenalin – putting a smile on their faces and eventually turning each other on. That joy of discovering you’re part of a new and interesting fun game is not just attributed to the actors but director Doug Liman.

Liman may have turned Robert Ludlum's "Bourne" series into a Hollywood commodity, but he still needs time to grow as a dramatic filmmaker. His "The Bourne Identity" was engaging as an action feature, but fell short with its dramatic story, ultimately becoming generic. Liman's true talent lies with comedy as he proved with "Go" and his break-out feature "Swingers", which put Vaughn on the map. With "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" he's cut out the drama and successfully combined both the action and comedy genres. The comedic timing that develops out of good writing, editing and working with talented actors has been successfully paired with the action and stunt choreography he picked up while working on "Bourne". Although this film really needs a third act, the action leading up to the conclusion is consistent and entertaining. Its first-rate hyper-reality, meaning that it's over-blown and over-the-top. Case in point is Pitt and Jolie dodging short range rockets at least twice during a massive shoot-out. There’s also a rather engaging and expertly choreographed sequence involving an SUV being chased by a group of cars that eventually end up exploding and tumbling down the freeway like tennis balls. With such physical roles, the two leads are more than up to the task as Pitt looks in better shape than he did in "Fight Club" and Jolie can be sexy in a vinyl corset one moment and coolly fleeing a hit via a repelling cable from her handbag the next.

"Mr. & Mrs. Smith" did leave me wanting a bit more, but I guess that was the point, the job it was designed to perform. The fact that I wanted a little more icing on top of this cake must mean that I enjoyed this treat which happens to be mighty filling. Although the set-up for a sequel is there I like to think about the here and now and what we have is an entertaining popcorn picture that is making the rest of my movie summer look brighter and full of optimism.