esterbloom.com

Mr. and Mrs. Smith go to Washington

The free advance showing of Mr and Mrs Smith that mr. ben and i attended last night attracted all sorts of irritating showbiz types and started over an hour late. It meant that for the third night running I got bare-minimum sleep and contributed to my general daziness today and lack of balance. But: it was worth it.

The onion av club agrees with me, for the record:

There’s no denying the high-concept gimmickry that has summoned Mr. & Mrs. Smith into existence, but what sounds in principle like a pitch for a TV pilot instead plays like an old-fashioned romantic comedy with updated hardware. Always better as an unhinged goofball than as a bronzed demigod in period garb, Pitt gives a loose-limbed performance that ricochets nicely off Jolie’s cool, unaffected sultriness. The knowing glibness occasionally spoils the fun—a problem that also plagued Liman’s Go and Swingers—but it’s rare that an action-comedy succeeds so swimmingly on both fronts. Rarely does a word like “deft” come to mind when viewing any film released between May and August, but Liman and company make it all look easy.

In case you were wondering, or because you have a genetic weakness for hearing the obvious stated, the hottest man alive and the hottest woman alive do indeed together equal supreme and unparalleled hotttness. Interestingly, this formula should have applied to the clunker original sin and did not – perhaps because m.andm.s has the HMA and HWA playing exactly to type and not bothering with funny accents, costumes, or plot devices.

In addition to showcasing supreme and unparalleled hotness, the movie manages to be clever, smooth, and refreshingly old-fashioned (in terms of movie conventions, NOT in terms of treatment of women. In fact, there are tons of awesome feminist throw-aways throughout). Yes, people, you heard it here first: this movie is better than the Sith. Don’t just stand there gaping at me – go buy a ticket! Seriously. It took my mind off the job-search and that’s saying something.