Starring: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie

Cert: 15

Released:10^th June 2005

John (Pitt) and Jane (Jolie) Smith have been married for five (or six) years, the honeymoon period waned a long time ago and they find themselves eking out each day in suburban hell. Something is missing from their lives but neither of them knows what it is or how to discuss the problem with the other.

            Part of the reason could be that they are both lying to each other; he isn’t in the construction industry and she isn’t a CEO of a software company, they are both assassins who happen to work for rival ‘firms’.

            Then comes that one mission when their paths cross, the truth comes out and all hell breaks loose. Professionally, they should be enemies to be exterminated but can five (or six) years of intimacy and history be so easily ignored?

Two of cinema’s coolest actors come to the screen and breeze through this light-hearted, heavy handed action, comedy.

            So the premise that these two ‘professionals’ should be able to co-exist with each other for so long without setting any alarms ringing is fairly preposterous considering they are supposed to be the best in the business. That is the only real issue and the plot point isn’t a big secret (if you’ve seen any kind of advertising for the film then you know the set-up).

            The first quarter of the film is establishing the mundanity of their married life and you don’t need to be in their situation to empathise with the smallest of irritations and the unnecessary, petty snappiness which are harboured and blown out of proportion until husband and wife begin to loathe each other.

            Then the action kicks in and it’s non-stop from then on as their marital emotions combine with their killer paranoia and they try to not get killed by the other.

            Then they try to kill each other and end up having one of the most outrageous hand-to-hand scraps I’ve ever seen; after this, even if their marriage counselling works, their chances of extending their family would be slim.

            Ultimately love wins out and they end up battling the rest of the World but their bickering continues amongst the revelations and flying bullets.

            Jolie is in comfortable Lara Croft mode and Pitt cruises as a cross between Tyler Durden (Fight Club – watch out for an in-joke during the interrogation) and Rusty Ryan (Ocean’s 11); she’s overly dispassionate to protect herself and he’s too macho to the extent of nearly always falling over himself.

            The action is excellent; utilising every possible worn cliché and giving it a spousal twist (his domain is the shed, hers is the kitchen), the effects and stunts are awesome (giving The Matrix: Reloaded’ motorway chase a run for it’s money) and all the way through is the incessant sniping which has a different resonance with each scene as they have to constantly re-evaluate their relationship.

            Two beautiful people, constant, hilariously pithy dialogue and some exceptional, original action sequences have made Mr. & Mrs. Smith one of the few films this year that has been able to live up to the hype and expectations.