Doug Liman creates out of chaos. When he set out to make Mr & Mrs Smith, the shambling New Yorker knew only what he didn’t want it to be: The Bourne Identity. So, here the action is the easy part – glossy and spectacular – while all the characters’ struggles are with suburbia: all jolly neighbours and immaculate dinner times. Even if you’re Brad and Angelina, you won’t always agree on the colour of the curtains.
The high-concept premise is one of those no-brainers that makes millions of wannabe screenwriters kick themselves that Simon Kinberg got there first: meshing rom-com with actioner, as secret husband and wife assassins are assigned to whack each other. It’s War Of The Roses stuffed with semtex and this new edition is darker and smarter, with cuts and extensions that may only add up to five minutes extra screen time, but make for a notably better movie than the theatrical release.
Liman’s process relies on evolution, but the studio was already nervous about the Brangelina media circus and kyboshed test-screenings in case early web reviews hamstrung the opening weekend. When the director finally saw Smith with a regular audience, he realised he could push the harder elements of the staid, suffocating marriage and discard studio fears about the short attention spans of “summer audiences”.
So, Adam Brody’s target isn’t shoe-horned in early, there’s extra time in the Smith’s lonely household and the editing feels more elegant. Little changes, sure, but the movie is more aggressive and unashamed: a date movie with no punches pulled.
The copious extra material is nicely unguarded and informative, with Liman’s commentary articulate and honest. The Domestic Violence doc shows, among other things, just how crucial music is to the tone of a scene (John Powell’s score is, incidentally, excellent), while the 19-minute Snowy Ravine featurette is as alternately fascinating and tedious as standing around observing production on the day.
The inclusion of a studio-suggested framing device – with Adam Brody recounting the movie’s story to a more-than-usually vacant Estelle Warren – shows quite how close the film came to disaster (it’s mesmerisingly awful). Scenes adding Jolie and Pitt’s ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ spymasters are equally misguided. That a movie so fresh and enjoyable emerged from the reshoots and tabloid ogling is something of a miracle. That Doug Liman is a director who deserves more attention and respect – having delivered Swingers and jump-started Bourne – is without doubt.
DVD Extras:
Deleted & alternate sequences
Three featurettes
Documentary
Previsualisations
Gallery
Director commentary
