Tabloid darlings Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie play house in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Doug Liman’s conjugal action/comedy in which the regular US Weekly cover couple play disaffected spouses who are shocked to discover that the other is a deadly assassin. Pitt and Jolie’s rapport during the household-set first half – which is sprinkled with snippets of the duo passive-aggressively sparring in marriage counseling sessions – exhibits an amusing air of mutual discontent. Yet once screenwriter Simon Kinberg’s narrative conceit is revealed and Pitt and Jolie are assigned to kill each other, there’s nothing left but dreary paint-by-numbers action set pieces in which the couple’s amorous spark is reignited through murderous sparring. Liman’s facetious fight scenes deflate due to Pitt and Jolie’s predetermined indestructibility, but more troubling is Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s flippant depiction of violence as a consequence-free activity (except for all those faceless drones on the receiving end of Pitt and Jolie’s bullets) that’s both fun and liberating for the entire family. Achieving catharsis via punching your husband or wife in the face may begin as a tongue-in-cheek metaphor. However, as this one-note film segues into a standard-issue summer blow-'em-up, such activities eventually seem less like therapy and more like good ol’ fashioned domestic – and audience – abuse.
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