Left With Mixed Feelings

Rating: 7/10 (4 April 2006)

Here is my 2 cents worth of opinion on Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I felt the need to comment since I sat through the DVD feature, all three commentaries, and the other special features to try and understand why I was left with a mediocre feeling about the movie. I was thinking about giving it a median 5 rating, but increased for Angelina Jolie and great set design work to make LA & Pasadena look like other locations.
There is a lot to like about the movie if you look at the actors, sets, editing, and cinematography. Even though the studio seemed to be making the producers cut costs all along the way based on the commentary, the $110 million budget estimate seems more than adequate.
The weakness seems to be the lack of a great plot, and the producers admit that they decided to focus on the relationship between John and Jane Smith and abandon the original plot points after having about two thirds of the film shot and edited together while waiting on actors to complete other projects. The scenes at the marriage counselor's office seemed to flash "The Sopranos" at me even though it seemed like a good idea, most of the other budget cuts and location changes did not seem to degrade the movie at all, but they may have relied on computer (CGI) graphics too much, even with very good editing.
The producers and director were changing and forming their vision for the movie as it was being shot, I think that made it difficult for the actors to know what their ultimate result was supposed to be. The level ranged between serious assassination & action fight scenes to silly comedic style scenes resulting in a cartoonish feeling even though I thought the visual aspect of the movie was very good.
My first thought about this movie was how will they be able to even pull off this difficult plot in any way that is believable and novel, and I felt they did it in the relationship scenes at their home better than the rest. I would have guessed the opposite. The only way I can see dealing with the plot better would have been to create something more like old TV "Avengers" staying with a less violent Steed and Mrs. Peel tongue in cheek relationship the whole way.