The story begins with Jane and John Smith being interviewed by a counselor. They talk about their relationship and how they first met.

The scene then switches to 5 or 6 years ago. Jane is on vacation, but anyone traveling alone is being captured by the police.

Luckily, John saves her by claiming that she’s with him. Then the two go into a room and make love.

Later, they are back at home, and their relationship is getting more serious. Shortly after, they get married.

One night, they are having dinner together. Jane asks John to pass the salt, except that it’s right in the middle of the table.

Unfortunately, something goes wrong and Jane drives away. John chases her and tries his best to stay calm when asking her to come home. But that only lasts so long. Even more shocking, Jane has a gun and shoots John away.

Horrified and lost, John goes to his neighbor, Eddie, for help. Eddie claims that he also had relationship issues. That’s why he’s happy being single.

Although John and Jane are married, their marriage isn’t perfect. In fact, it has lots of flaws and conflicts.

Not only that, but the two are also skilled field operatives who work for different contract-killing firms. This causes gun violence and chaos between them, including on a road with other people. They even end up in the wrong direction. Yet no one calls the cops.

At some point, John and Jane are assigned to kill DIA prisoner Benjamin Danz—a.k.a. “The Tank.” But they fail to get along and continue to shoot each other.

What’s worse is that their shooting gets so out of control, they end up destroying their own house. Despite that, though, they don’t act emotionally over losing their home.

But stakes do rise. Can John and Jane fix their relationship and settle?

The majority of this movie engaged me with its fast pacing and lots of action—including the shooting. It’s a movie and not real life. Otherwise, the gun use would have been too upsetting.

That being said, I found it too bizarre that John and Jane had hardly any reaction to their house being on fire and collapsing because of their shooting. Even in films, the characters should get super upset and emotional over their burning home.

The fire department doesn’t even show up. Or if they do, it’s not shown. And although it isn’t the first time that reckless drivers don’t get pulled over in movies due to the importance of storytelling, I feel like in this movie, it would have made sense. John and Jane being locked up together could have been a major plot twist in mending their relationship.

Despite how the constant action and high levels of tension drew me in, the story was kind of hard to follow. I had trouble identifying what John and Jane’s goals actually were.

And an unanswered question was why solo travelers were being questioned by the police at the beginning of the movie. Solo traveling isn’t uncommon. But there must have been some reason that it was being discouraged in Columbia when John and Jane first met.

In spite of their imperfections, I did admire John and Jane as a couple. In fact, I find it creative and smart that they included an actual married couple: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Yes, they got divorced years later. But they were together at the time this film was made. That makes the characters feel more authentic and credible.

But overall, I thought Mr. & Mrs. Smith was just okay. The perks and drawbacks were pretty much even. And one reason is because the last several minutes became less exciting.

I give this film 3 out of 5 stars.