An interesting, though somewhat comic book premise. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are hit man and hit woman respectively. You may be willing to accept this rarity in the name of enjoying a film. But will you also be willing to believe that, though experts in their field of spydom, they spend five to six years of marriage unaware of the other's actual line of work? This is all the first third has to offer. I found it slow, rather uneventful, dull.

The second act toys with that premise. Finally, each stumbles upon the truth behind the spouse, but not in any ordinary way. Besides all that we're expected to believe, we are also expected to believe that they have substantial motivation to kill each other. I found this act, somewhat eventful, but tedious.

Finally, and ultimately quite predictably, they team up. This is where the film finally begins to pick up some momentum. And while admittedly it's rather without substance, the action, the banter, the play of the film begins to jell. I found this last third good clean, shallow fun.

Lastly, while both Pitt and Jolie are solid, they're not stellar. They do deliver a handful of really good verbal zingers, but for the most part, the dialogue is pedestrian. The film seems to rely on a certain unseen, unspoken tension, tone. But I found that tension quite incomplete.

That said, Vince Vaughn breaks the rather bleak dialogue surface of the film with sharp fun vivacity. In his short moments of screen time, he gives the sedate audience a punch. He's also good fun with Jon in Made

"Mr. & Mrs. Smith" tries for the feel of "True Lies" (a far superior film). Grosse Pointe Blank also does a better job. And more recently, Incredibles nails this sort of genre.

Jolie says of the film, "I'm very much like Jane. I learned something about myself through playing her. It's important for women to feel that they can be strong on their own, but it's great to be involved with a film where a man and a woman need each other and are better when they're together. There's something great about people functioning as a team that movies haven't focused on in a while."