Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Directed by Doug Liman, Mr. & Mrs. Smith follows a married couple (Brad Pitt’s John and Angelina Jolie’s Jane) as they come to the realization that they’re both spies for rival agencies. It’s a fun, larger-than-life premise that’s employed to tiresome and increasingly interminable effect by Liman, as the filmmaker, working from a script by Simon Kinberg, delivers a relentlessly, aggressively slick endeavor that contains few elements designed to capture and sustain the viewer’s interest – with the arms-length atmosphere perpetuated by Pitt and Jolie’s smug, charm-free efforts and a whole surfeit of glossy action sequences. (The latter is especially problematic given that Liman proves unable to infuse even a single high-octane moment with thrills or anything resembling genuine excitement.) And while the movie admittedly does boast an appealingly energetic periphery turn by Vince Vaughn, whose all-too-short appearance remain the one palpably engaging element within the proceedings, Mr. & Mrs. Smith builds towards a frenetic, exhausting climax that’s hardly able to pack the visceral punch Liman has undoubtedly intended – with the end result a brutally overlong disaster that squanders a promising setup and talented cast.

* out of ****