This is a weird movie, with some very good attributes and some areas lacking. It’s like an action packed assassins movie crossed with a cheesy slow romantic drama, crossed with satirical comedy.
Brad and Angie are of course legends in practically everything they do, and this is the movie they hooked up on, to become the Brangelina supercouple. So in a way, this movie was the reason Brad divorced Jennifer Aniston, although the writing was already on the wall for Jennifer as she didn’t age too well.
Brad Pitt plays John Smith, and Angelina Jolie plays his wife, Jane Smith. Both are assassins, purely by co-incidence, and working for rival firms. They’re married to each other yet somehow managing to hide their real jobs from each other, until eventually they bump into each other when they have the same target to kill. Then they need to kill each other, and they try to, but then they fall in love again. It’s a simple cheesy story, with plenty of fun to it, a fair amount of good action, and an extremely lighthearted vibe.
This movie had potential to be a lot better as an action movie, but due to its mix-up of genres and its general weirdness and most likely complacency (like we see in practically all movies where multiple superstars come together, although “too many cooks” syndrome is probably a factor too), I have to rate it just OK, no more. I’d rate it a bit higher for first time watchers, but for rewatching after a few years I’d say Mr & Mrs Smith (2005) is just OK.
See also, the new TV series
If you’re a fan of this mix of genres, you may also like to check out the 2024 TV series by the same name (Mr & Mrs Smith) which follows a similar but modified core concept, and has no superstar cast but is getting rave reviews around the internet although no doubt it won’t be to everyone’s taste – I probably won’t bother with it myself.