Mr. & Mrs. Smith

"At the end, you can only think of the beginning."

Such a simple line uttered by John Smith (Brad Pitt) to her wife, Jane Smith (Angelina Jolie) in one of the car-chase scenes in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which is plainly uttered in a regular manner as what Pitt usually does, turns out to be some slipped subtlety we might wonder here.

Is this really the end of Hollywood glamorous era?

Never before in recent releases a film is capitalized on the glitz presence of its leading actors who are portrayed as what and how their images are projected off-screen.
Never before in recent releases that a film charms its audience for the sake of the actors who do not act to be on their own easily.
The latter point might bring the fact that, as hesitant as it might be, never before in recent releases that a film is perfectly cast.



Yet, if we look back at the old Hollywood days when scriptswriters are masters and directors are kings in putting their signatural marks on witty and smart scripts, this kind of practice had been done in the early years of the century.
People flocked to see Cary Grant doing the best impersonation of himself, to be seduced by Marilyn Monroe in whatever film she was in, and this topic will not complete without mentioning the legendary pairings of Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy and Lauren Bacall-Humphrey Bogart. A consummate thespian on their own, when they were paired, audience saw the chemistry between each couple as the result of what their projected images off-screen were: Hepburn, a strong willed lady to be charmed by Tracy's gentleness and patience, and Bacall as a debonaire, mysterious lady to be melt by Bogart's rough-yet-tender sensitive old guy.

It might be way early to place Pitt and Jolie alongside the legends, but judging from their banterings and unspeakable ease of performing to and for each other, we can't help but smiling all through the entire duration of 110 minutes without even at once bothering about illogical plots. This is a well packaged summer blockbuster film: explosive action, gorgeous cast that even looks larger-than-life thanks to nicely done shot that seem to make both of them being ripped off from any glossy fashion magazine, and the wits spoken convincingly as if we really see Pitt and Jolie have been performing together for a number of times.



To think that the whole film relies on its own star presence is surely a reminiscence of the good glorious old Hollywood days, which leads us thinking how star powers these days are being set aside, making a way for mindless CGI effects. The film might not be the best for its own genre, but to keep the treatment from dying completely, it is sure an applaudable effort.