Strike While Hot

Rating: 8/10 (18 March 2006)

The plot is equal parts "Undercover Blues", "War of the Roses", "True Lies", and borrowings from "When Harry met Sally", though this merely serves as a platform.
Pitt and Jolie dance right over this layer, practically floating, simultaneously giving us a movie performance and a comment on their own true life romance...the dance takes the form of both witty repartee and of obvious sexual charge. This is what makes the whole over-the-top absurdity work -- all of their interaction occurs in a cinematic stratosphere. Much like their real lives; their current state of white-hot celebrity has them flying through a higher plane of existence.
The entire movie is their mutual wink at the audience -- "look at us and how much fun this is!" Pitt confesses that he was married once before (nudge, nudge), and Jolie snippily demands the ex's name and social security number.
This was all a good deal more sophisticated than it was advertised. We know we're in for something special when we learn that home base is that stunning Colonial revival house. It serves as both setting and a way of narratively tying the first two acts together -- that of a metaphor for the civilized veneer of their five ("Six!") years of marriage, and for rekindling their passion when they 'remodel' it into the war zone where they first 'caught fire' together.
The movie is a clever exploitation of the couple-of-the-moment phenomenon, far better than most of these things turn out.