Mr and Mrs Myth?
Given its witty dialogue, star value and the theme (that is universal) the film is a directorial success, writes Annie Datta.
The audience in Portugal is familiar with the theme. They are used to the programme Café de Manhã (morning coffee programme) on the Radio RFM at 106.8 FM. A selected couple begin "the biggest of all wars" the gender war or the Sexo Forte as it is nicknamed. It is no physical domestic trouble, but an involved intellectual combat between a man and a woman where each impresses the programmer with his knowledge of chores related to the opposite sex. The programme is quite popular among the listeners of the radio. The production team has launched a book for those who want to know more about dominating the adversary so as to win the 8.45 AM contest. Humour is the basis of this 'war' between the sexes. The programmers expect men to know a woman's preferences from shoes to bread while the woman could be tested on her knowledge of football. You could identify either with a man's or a woman's point of view.
The film Mr. and Mrs. Smith, (featuring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) currently running in cinema halls in Portugal, is more than just a war of frying pans and screwdrivers. The intellectual violence is extended to a sophisticated use of arms and technology. Humour is substituted by real action. The gender war is fought with guns, gadgetry and gizmo. Violence within violence ending in the comic is what the film is about. The fairy tale end of "happy ever after" has a surprising twist as the couple is shown facing a marriage counsellor. John (Brad Pitt) tells their marriage counsellor, "I love my wife. I want her to be happy ... but there are times ..." The problem begins when meaning goes out of marriage. But there is more to it than meets the eye. Husband and wife are, in fact, elite assassins.
The medium is modern though the myth goes back to Adam and Eve each blaming the other for the fall before becoming united in earthly love. The myth is re-enacted again within the framework of a plot where husband Brad Pitt and wife Angelina Jolie work at cross-purposes without each other's knowledge till the plot undergoes a twist and both unite to fight the common enemy. That's on the literal level with its own wit that the audience is not slow to react to. The film is extraordinary in so far as it adapts violence that prevails within the technological culture and makes use of it towards a comical end. In short, the bottom line is that the film entertains.
The film has great star value. Angelina Jolie is the most beautiful woman working in the films today. Brad Pitt, the Ocean's Eleven star, is equally charismatic. Again, the film deviates from the traditional genre of a violence packed film that once involved pairing male only characters at the top as in the popular film of 1969, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, where the two star actors were Paul Newman and Robert Redford.
This film is different and psychologically real in pairing a male and female star which could also be the two sides of the human psyche in a constant dialogue, another matter that it turns excessively violent in Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Worth mentioning is the psychological interest in the portrayal of the love-hate dynamics. It might be ridiculous at times but in one's view what is being ridiculed is the excessive violence that has saturated our culture. On the contrary, it's more in the class of a romantic comedy within the metaphor of the state-of-the-art explosives, ammunition and car chases. Given its witty dialogue, star value and the theme (that is universal) the film is a directorial success.