The Point of Mr. & Mrs. Smith

 Okay, so, of all of stories that take up way too much space in my brain, one of them is Mr. & Mrs. Smith, the 2005 Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt movie that jumpstarted their ill-fated romance. This ill-fated romance is a lot, and we’re not getting into it today. We’re focusing on the actual story of Mr. & Mrs. Smith today.

Because I think the thing about Mr. & Mrs. Smith with regards to its reception is that it was fundamentally misunderstood. When you look at reviews, they tend to be mixed, and they tend to revolve around the star power of Angelina and Brad or the action versus the story. And it’s this misinterpretation that I’m interested in because this film, despite what you might think, is not first and foremost an action movie. It is first and foremost a romance.

Let’s talk about the plot and then, we’ll get into the analysis. Spoilers ahead. (I know this movie came out in 2005, but I’m just saying.)

The Plot of Mr. & Mrs. Smith

So, the basic premise of the movie is pretty simple. John and Jane Smith are a successful couple working through their marital issues. The twist of the film is that they’re secretly both hired killers, and a lot of their issues stem from their secret lives and lying to each other. Over the course of the film, we see their domestic issues, learn who they are, learn that their competing companies are trying to kill them, and most importantly, watch them work together to overcome their domestic and “career” concerns.

I’m not going to get into too much detail because there’s a lot that happens, and if you’re here, you’ve probably seen the film. But there are some things I want to mention.

The movie starts off with Jane and John in marriage counseling. The therapist asks them how happy they are (8 out of 10 but not really), how often they’re having sex (which is never), and then how they met. The film cuts to Bogota, Columbia, which is where they met for the first time. The country is in upheaval because someone shot the barracuda. Now the police are looking for solo travelers. As luck would have it, Jane and John meet and use each other to escape suspicion. They’re not traveling alone. They’re together!

They drink. They dance. They kiss. We cut to the next morning where they enjoy a cute breakfast together while the country quite literally shakes and burns around them.

Once they’re back in America, they get married, and they start building your standard suburban life. Their lying and their disparate personalities cause issues, and the film shows all this through small, tense conversations and clever details like creating literal space between them with a long dining table.

The initial problem that film sets up is a romance problem. The film implies that they’re cheating with it looking like lipstick on John’s shirt and Angelina putting on perfume to go take care of a server. However, the film soon shifts, and we find out their real job.

Later, they’re given the same target, and this leads to them finding out who the other person is. They’re immediately suspicious of each other back at home and proceed through various shenanigans to spend a good chunk of time trying to kill each other, but when push comes to shove, they can’t do it. There is, in fact, some sort of love there.

Then, their companies put out hits on them, and from that point forward, they come together, work through their issues via aggressive honesty, and fight the people going after them. There’s a big shootout at the end during which they make the active decision to stay together.

With that all out of the way, let’s get into what the film is trying to do.

The Driving Force of the Movie

All right. So, what do we have?

I don’t think this movie is as interested in the action as it is in the romance and the development of their marriage. That’s why the film starts and ends with them in couples counseling. The entire story is framed through their marriage.

Like, don’t get me wrong. This movie loves its action. There are endless fight scenes and explosions. But the development of the film has far more to do with the development of their relationship than it does with the action. The romance is the engine, the driving force of the movie.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie do carry this movie on some level, but that’s partly because the movie is basically entirely the two of them while side characters occasionally pop in. Now, I don’t think this film would have worked as well with less talented actors. But I still do think it’s the combo of the acting and the story that makes this movie work as well as it does.

The fact that they both go back to marriage counseling alone near the beginning of the film demonstrates that they’re not able to communicate with each other, but they do want to work on it. And the film steadily builds up this idea and allows them to work on their relationship through action. There’s never an action scene that doesn’t have the underlying tension of them working through their marital issues. And we’re going to get there but first let’s talk about Jane and John individually.

John and Jane as People

Jane and John have completely disparate personalities, and they’re also perceiving the relationship differently.

John is your standard chill but competent guy. He gets the job done, but he does it in his own unique way. He considers the job to be gut instinct, and he thinks you need to be able to improvise to get the job done.

Jane does not improvise. She meticulously plans. You see that through the small details like her purse being exactly long enough to get her from the floor where she kills the man to the street in her first kill at the beginning of the film.

You can really see the difference in their murder and life philosophies during the scene in which they’re going after the same target. Jane has carefully set up explosive charges to take out the convoy. She’s sitting in a nearby shack, monitoring the situation while John shows up in a desert car, blasting music. His plan is a bazooka. This difference in worldview, along with the lying and the lack of mutual respect, is what forms the foundation of their relationship issues.

The Development of Their Relationship

The development and improvement of their relationship comes in steps. First, you have the reveal that they’re both assassins. This puts them back on an even playing field because the root of their dishonesty comes from the lying about what they do.

Suddenly, their relationship shifts from tense and stilted to witty and open. They’re bantering back and forth, basically flirting. They’re also forced on some level to acknowledge the other person’s competence as they work to try and kill each other. As John says while he’s in the elevator, “You constantly underestimate me.”  

By the time we finish the scene in the elevator, she thinks he’s tried to kill her, and he thinks she’s tried to kill him. They both get more aggressive, physically and verbally. When you get to the house, it’s an all out shoot out and brawl. But this brawl ends up serving as a purpose as they come to a mutual understanding and level of respect. They can take the shot, but in the end, they can’t actually kill each other.

If anything, this scene demonstrates in a messed up way how much they’ve come to respect each other and their individual abilities. They know that they can shoot and punch and all that, but the other person will be okay. It ends up being more about letting out aggression and even foreplay more than trying to actively kill each other. The song that sings while they physically fight it out is “Express Yourself.” It’s about expressing themselves!

Their new level of honesty continues after their fistfight, and they have long conversations about their past, as individuals, assassins, and a couple.

Because they’re now able to be honest with each other, the focus shifts from fighting each other to learning how to work together. If they’re going to stay together, they have to figure out a way to work together. You get multiple scenes of them doing just that, and their teamwork and communication gets better each time.

Working Together as a Team

So, the first scene of them having to work together is them escaping their house when they’re attacked by fellow assassins, stealing a car, and navigating a car chase.

The assassins are behind them. John starts driving “evasively” despite the fact that she’s asking him to hold steady so she can get a shot. She insists that they switch positions, and John takes over the offensive side. I think the moment that’s emblematic of this scene is when she calls to him that the cars are bulletproof and then he doesn’t hear her and tells her that they’re bulletproof. It’s just a moment that demonstrates their lack of communication and inability to work together.

The real thing though is that they’re sharing new information throughout the entire scene. It’s not pure action. He’s telling her he’s been married once before. She’s telling her that she’s an orphan and the parents he met were paid actors. They’re trying to be completely honest with each other, and the action moves with that conversation.

Another important moment is towards the very end of the scene when John’s working to take out the two cars. She asks if he has it, he says yes, she says, “Anytime,” he says he’s got it, and then she takes over and swirls the car around to get them herself. She doesn’t trust him to take care of it.

Throughout the scene, they basically function completely independently.

(Also, this is neither here nor there, but I do want to point out the really creative action in this scene. They’re driving their neighbor’s car, and they really take advantage of it. Opening the back to spill out the stuff inside, utilizing the golf clubs to knock a guy out, and using the opposite sliding doors to take out a guy who enters the car. It’s great.)

After this scene are a few key moments that determine the rest of the movie. The first is the scene with Eddie at the diner in which he tells them that apart they have a shot, but if they stay together, they’re dead. They understand the consequences now, but they’re willing to work together. They want to try. So, they decide to combine their skills and go after Danz, the asset who supposedly both of their companies want.

Which brings us to the second scene and their first attempt to work as a unit. They at least attempt to make a plan. They attempt to show each other respect with speed bumps a lot the way. She has to assert that she knows what she’s doing, and he has to dispute the way she speaks to him. The mission doesn’t go very well. It starts as the Jane show and ends as the John show, but it’s at least progress.

The breakdown of this attempt goes back to their core issue. She tries to control the situation, and John goes rogue.

Again, after this scene, we have another key moment. This is after they find out the overall plot by their companies and that their companies are coming. They’re hiding under a storm drain, and they reveal their individual ways out. Jane argues that they should call this was it is and split up, implying their marriage isn’t real. John says, “it’s a crap marriage,” but he argues that they stay together. Make a stand together. She agrees.

The Final Stand – Together

So, now we come to their final stand, which takes place in a home goods store of all places, a nod to their previous empty attempt at living a regular domestic life. But now, they are finally, finally a solid team. There are still things they need to work on, demonstrated by moments of tension. But they work together.

After their companies find them, the couple is silently taking their attackers out. A great moment from this sequence is when Jane sees a cart of knives and gestures towards them. John gets her meaning immediately, and before they exit their cover, they nod to each other and stand up simultaneously. They understand each other. It’s the same deal when they exit the elevator. She flies, he’s bait, and they cover each other. This conversation is short and functional

Finally, we come to the very end. They’re in a shed, regrouping before the last fight. Finally, they, particularly Jane, acknowledge that this is where they want to be: fighting together for their lives and their relationship.

My absolute favorite moment comes now. They’re completely in sync, working together. Then, to prove it, the music from their first night when they danced comes back. The film tells us, through music, that they’re connected again. They’ve found the thing that brought them together in the first place.

The film ends with them in couple’s therapy again, but now, they’re relaxed. They’re allied. And they’re ready to face the world together.

Conclusion

So, just to kind of recap, their journey starts with injecting honesty into the relationship, continues with the development of mutual respect, and then ends with them learning to work together, so they can ensure their physical and marital survival.

The reason the finale works is because it’s them fighting together to survive. They’re fighting for each other and their relationship, something they weren’t doing at the beginning. And if you view this movie as purely an action or star-powered movie, then you’re missing half of the amazing things this movie does. You’re missing the point.

Is their relationship functional and great? Not really. Is it better at the end than the beginning? Absolutely. My point, my thesis if you will, is that this movie should be judged as an okay romance rather than a bad action movie. Because the action serves the romance, not the other way around.