If we need to recycle old intellectual property, Mr. and Mrs. Smith is the way to do it

Have you seen Mr and Mrs Smith, the 2005 Brad-and-Angelina action comedy, recently? Like it, Actually watched it and don’t just let your nostalgic memories of it play in your head. Mr and Mrs Smith was at the center of pop culture in the mid-aughts for many reasons that had nothing to do with the actual film, and a few that did: it’s sexy fun with big stars, and director Doug Liman knows how to put a movie together. good action scene. The elevator pitch – two professional hitmen are married to each other, but know nothing about each other’s jobs – is a good one.

But right now, in 2024, it’s almost unimaginably strange. It’s one of those not-so-old films that are so specific to their time that they seem older than their age. The bitter, marriage-is-hell humor goes awry. The two leads look attractive, but a bit unreal, as if they are the premature product of aging technology. There are some questionable digital shots, and the cinematography and camerawork – all handheld, all high contrast, all orange and teal, all the time – are extremely 2005. It’s just not a movie that plays anymore, and while it was a huge hit and was the eye of a gossip storm, it’s not talked about much these days.

That makes it an odd choice to be adapted into a Prime Video streaming series. Or maybe not. Perhaps the choice of star Donald Glover and co-creator Francesca Sloane is genius.

In the current phase of the streaming wars (a phase we may be on the verge of leaving behind, but that’s another story) the studios are unwavering in their belief that any level of intellectual property brand awareness is better than none, and creatives are inundated with invitations to rework some old film. Very rarely, as with Noah Hawley’s unlikely success Fargo, an anthology series created in the spirit of the Coen brothers’ cinematic masterpiece, this worked. More often than not this is not the case. Sometimes the misguided results were at least interesting, like Amazon’s curious reinterpretation Dead Ringers. Sometimes, as in the case of the uninspired innovation of Fatal attractionthey have been both pointless and boring.

Glover and Sloane’s inspired choice was to select from the studios’ menu a film that is famous but unsophisticated and not particularly beloved, with dated iconography that can be easily dismissed and a strong concept that can be stripped to its core and can be built from scratch. . This is exactly what they have done: create a beautiful series that is almost the opposite of its inspiration, while sharing its core values: it is funny, sexy, shiny and exciting, and built around the chemistry of the two leads.

The design is clearly different. Instead of rival assassins accidentally linked together, Glover and Maya Erskine’s John and Jane Smith are purposefully linked to the same shadowy employer, leaving their previous lives behind to start a new one together. Where Pitt and Jolie begin the film as impeccable professionals trapped in domestic boredom, Glover and Erskine are clumsy, hesitant newcomers who explore their dangerous new profession and budding relationship together.

This sets up a show that is a lightly spiced, well-observed look at contemporary work and relationships with a side order of covert operations. It may take a few episodes for viewers to adjust Mr and Mrs Smith‘s unique world. It’s intimate and chatty, with a casual approach to the action that isn’t concerned with realism or plausibility, continually lowering the dramatic temperature and stakes even as the Smiths get involved in increasingly bizarre mission-of-the-week scenarios . It’s a cool, easy-going relationship drama about people who happen to be elite contract agents (but also gig workers, sort of). That’s not to say it doesn’t deliver thrills – there are some close crashes, and a later episode on Lake Como has an excellent extended chase scene – but it’s easy to tell where Glover and Sloane’s interest really lies: the action is just as broad-brush and goofy, as the Smiths’ dialogue is plausible, intricate, and deft in its details.

Mr and Mrs Smith – as opposed to the cinematically ambitious Fargo show that Sloane worked on, for example, and also contributed to Glover’s Atlanta – also has no illusions about which medium it belongs to. This is really a TV show. It has sleek, ambitious visuals, with beautiful location shots in New York and Europe, handsome architecture and cool fashion (Glover’s looks are on point). But the scale is small and the 40-minute episodes are tight, discreet and satisfying short stories. Each of them advances the Smiths’ relationship as they are paired with a series of one-off guest stars, often serving as the couple’s mission objective. It’s a killer line-up of iconic actors: John Turturro, Sharon Horgan, Parker Posey, Ron Perlman, Sarah Paulson, Paul Dano, Michaela Coel and more. Perlman is magnificent as a sad, childish oligarch with a killer Hitler joke, while Paulson makes a brutally accurate parody of a relationship therapist.

This is just a great TV format, and in theory Mr and Mrs Smith could walk like this forever; it is reminiscent of Poker face in the way it tries to rehabilitate outdated television of the week. However, Glover likes to play games with form, such as with Altanta – albeit in this case to a much less experimental extent. Mr and Mrs Smith is only a few episodes old before it starts to break its own format. It’s smartly done, but it may not give Glover and Sloane much room to maneuver in a potential second season.

But maybe that’s because Mr and Mrs SmithThe main driving force of the relationship is the relationship between John and Jane, and it is essential to the drama that it continues to develop. Glover and Erskine are simply irresistible: sympathetic, simultaneously prickly and smooth, damaged but competent (to a point), and very plausible in each other. Their scenes together exude the comforting bitchy intimacy of two people who are inseparable partners in absolutely everything, and when something goes wrong between them, the show’s carefree surface cracks enough to reveal real pain.

Mr and Mrs Smith is a nice piece of escapism, wrapped around a complex, warm and recognizable love story. Glover and Sloane have created something new and refreshing from a film that has passed its sell-by date. If we are only allowed to see new things based on other, older things, we should be happy if a fraction of them are made with as much humor and creativity as this.

Mr and Mrs Smith is now streaming on Prime Video.