Killing Me Not So Softly

Rating: 7/10 (5 July 2005)

This is a movie about two contract killers who are married to each other, and implausible as it may seem, it is not a caper flick, or a crime story, but a domestic comedy. Roger Ebert in his review is spot-on: the only reason this movie exists is to see Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie together. So strong is their chemistry that it relegates the flying bullets, impossible plot, and preposterous posturing to the background.
The movie opens in a marriage counselor's office, which sets the tone for everything that follows, namely, what their occupations and deceitfulness do to their marriage. The incongruity of all the murder for hire machinations is simply to be dismissed as irrelevant to the real business at hand. And, from the quotes section for this movie is a sampling of what this movie is about:
John Smith: Your aim's as bad as your cooking sweetheart... and that's saying something!
Jane Smith: Happy endings are just stories that haven't finished.
(about the new curtains Jane bought) Jane Smith: If you don't like them just say so and we can take them back. John Smith: All right, I don't like them. Jane Smith: Learn to live with them.
Counselor: How often do you have sex? Jane Smith: I don't understand the question.
Jane Smith: There's this huge space between us, and it just keeps filling up with whatever we don't say to each other. What's that called? Counselor: Marriage.
Eddie: This broad is not your wife; she's the enemy. John Smith: She tried to kill me. Eddie: They all try to kill you. Slowly, painfully, cripplingly. How you going to handle it? John Smith: (grabs assault rifle) I'm going to borrow this. Eddie: I like where your head's at, man.
Therapist: How long have you been married? John Smith: Five years Jane Smith: Six years. John Smith: (chastened) Five or six years.
Jane Smith: Any last words? John Smith: The new curtains are hideous.
It is offensive to my personal sense of morality that the occupation of the two likable protagonists is never examined. To the credit of the screenplay, they only kill "bad" people thugs and gangsters and such, so we never catch any hint of dystopian fatalism. Think Adam's Rib or When Harry Met Sally with gunplay, and you have pretty much the essence of this movie. I liked it in spite of myself. Miss Jolie is now officially on my list of hot actresses .. Recommended