Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005) * * *

Directed by:  Doug Liman

Starring:  Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Vince Vaughn, Adam Brody, Kerry Washington, Keith David, Stephanie March

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie mine these characters and for all they are worth.   They play a married couple named John and Jane Smith (likely not their real names) whose marriage is on the rocks and in counseling.   One reason for the discord may be a lack of honesty, because neither has divulged to the other what they really do for a living:   Both are professional assassins working for rival factions.   It isn't hard to understand why neither Mr. or Mrs. Smith would want to spill the beans on this potentially dicey topic, but circumstances make it impossible for them not to broach the subject.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith is an action comedy which builds to a climax full of gun play, car chases, fistfights, and gadgets which would make James Bond proud.   The buildup is more fun than the payoff, but Pitt and Jolie (who of course would soon become a real-life couple) have palpable chemistry, and this makes Mr. and Mrs. Smith much more involving than if we had the same plot with different actors. 

John meets Jane roughly five years prior in Colombia, where they spot each other in a hotel and become instantly attracted.    They fall in love and marry.   How it takes their employers five years to discover whom the other is married to is something not answered here.   But as far as John and Jane go, each stashes their weapons in secret hideouts around their suburban home, and both are pretty good at lying to the other about how their workdays went over Jane's homecooked dinners.  

This subterfuge doesn't last, and soon both John and Jane are contracted to kill the same target. 
John discovers Jane is a hired killer and vice versa, and soon each is hired to kill the other.   Will they be able to pull the trigger when the time comes?   Or will love prevail?   How do they even know they love each other because they don't know anything about each other's real lives?   In one of the better sequences, John and Jane tell some truths about themselves as they evade enemy gunfire. 

Vince Vaughn turns in some funny supporting work as John's right-hand man and fellow assassin, who shows unexpected loyalty instead of taking his company up on the $400,000 bounty placed on both John and Jane.   But, this is Pitt's and Jolie's movie to look good, kick ass, kill people, and even show some depth in places you wouldn't anticipate.