A Hit Reunion. Review on Grosse Pointe Blank Movie

If you compare this to Leon, and find it wanting, it won't surprise me. Both 90's films are about professional killers, but differently wired. But this film will definitely survive repeated viewing, for its cynical humor.

John Cusack's writing team (Cusack, Jankiewicz, etc) responsible for Grosse Pointe also worked on the high profile High Fidelity based on Nick Hornby's novel, but here the target is less ambitious. Cusack is known for leaning to the quirky and off-beat (remember this movie was ahead of Analyze This or The Sopranos) but it wasn’t warning enough for some people. Grosse Pointe is largely a not-completely-black comedy, a Lite calorie-free version also mixing in some fast action and romance. The trouble was the film apparently didn't know how to announce itself, or else the writers got too clever with that deadpan chewing-the-existential-cud wit, that sent some viewers straying in search of something deeper and more substantial than what it actually is….and coming home disappointed.

I watched it fresh out of expectations, and found it funny enough. Can you see John Cusack, normally playing agreeable, low-key, friend-of-women-and-dogs roles, working here as Martin Blank, freelance professional killer, undisturbed by the moral ramifications?

Well, mostly undisturbed. He has his own set of ethics (refuses a contract on a Greenpeace boat), and of late, he's finding he's lost enjoyment in his work, although this has nothing to do with any change of heart towards his victims.

Cue to bring in shrink Dr Oatman (Alan Arkin cameo). Dr Oatman is treating Blank under force. (He knows what Blank does for a living, and Blank knows where Oatman lives). Dr Oatman prescribes a change of scene for Blank's blues - ''take some time off, don’t kill anyone, see how it feels''. The Oatman character was a nice sketch, that could have been longer, as proved by the later comic success of hitmen/reluctant-analyst duos in Analyze This (and That).

Don’t expect any major character development, or examination of psyches of professional killers. Blank's name, and profession is here only to provide some quick laughs in contrast with the yuppie mid-western setting of his old town Grosse Pointe (Michigan) and its high school 10 year reunion, to which Blank has been invited.

The writers don’t take Dr Oatman's advice to cool off, instead they decide to bring things to a boil. In addition to the reunion, Blank is also booked for one last 'hit' at his town - a whistle-blower employee of an auto company who is set to cause major headaches by revealing product safety flaws. Meanwhile, Blank is being hounded by another killer (Dan Ackroyd), a former associate, to join a Hitmen's Union ...or else!. And the Feds, in the form of two agents (Hank Azaria and K Todd Freeman), also have him in their cross-hairs.

Hitman he may be, but he's just like everyone else in dreading this return to the past - reunions that force everyone to account for how their lives have turned out. The whole introduction sequence at the reunion is a running gag. Every time he says he's a professional killer, he gets a different reaction, usually not taking him seriously. ''Really, you get dental with that?''.

In addition, he's gotta face up to his old girlfriend Debi (Minnie Driver), whom he left without notice on the eve of the senior prom, and has never contacted since. No one has more reason to pull an Uzi on Blank than this girl, but after waiting around for 10 years without moving on, all she does is slap his face, then team up again. What can I say, the mid-west is not Brooklyn.

There's also some jokes about the inevitable changes to the things we leave behind - Blank's home has turned into a convenience store (''You can never go home again, but I guess you can shop there''), His Mom is losing her mind to some disease in an institution. Former bullies and friends are turned into car and real-estate salesmen. One thing doesn’t change - the music is firmly rooted in the eighties. You may hate the soundtrack or love it-depends on how much you like 80s punk and pop-The Clash, Guns and Roses, Pixies.

The dialogue has tongue firmly in cheek and regularly serves up funny one-liners, and in playing to the gallery in parts, the characters sometimes appear to be talking at, rather than to each other. Director George Armitage (of Miami Blues fame) seems to have had fun filming the car chases and shootouts, and it shows. A movie for when you're feeling ready to laugh.