Mr. & Mrs. Smith

I saw "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" today, starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, and was met with a really great film. But beyond the great action sequences and plot twists, there were a lot of metaphors that went hand-in-hand with the story's main thrust of this married couple's life together. Obviously, there's the spy double-life that stands as a metaphor for the side of ourselves, like work and time with friends, that we don't share with our loved ones completely, but there are other things that come out of this film really organically, like how the couple doesn't fit in with their suburban neighborhood at large, filled with happy couples, where these two spies are faced with things like children and such that don't fit into their career plans. They're really outcasts in this regard, even though they do their best to be pleasant neighbors. Also, the cheating metaphor really works strongly with the spy theme, as each of them make excuses about work, overlook the signs, wonder what to do after the shady-goings-on are discovered (do they start over?), etc. There was one scene where Mr. Smith comes home with blood on his collar, as opposed to lipstick on his collar, and does his best to hide that, which beautifully illustrates this point. A lot of basic misunderstandings that go hand-in-hand with married life speckle this film with examples of what we don't know about the ones closest to us. Go see this for yourself. I'm sure I overlooked plenty of things while watching the film too. I'd be curious what a second viewing might produce.