Grosse Pointe Blank
with John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Alan Arkin, Dan Aykroyd
Written by Tom Jankiewicz, D.V. DeVincentis, Steve Pink, John Cusack
Directed by George Armitage
(Hollywood/Caravan)
by Sam Ames
Grosse Pointe Blank goes waaay beyond your average high school reunion movie. There’s no getting even with past bullies or telling off snooty crushes or campy gee-wiz realizations of the dawning of, dare we say it – maturity. Grosse Pointe Blank audaciously goes for more and defies all convention by adding a few unorthodox twists and dark humor to cleverly keep viewers guessing and laughing – sometimes hysterically.
The concept and the cast are top notch. John Cusack plays hit man Martin Blank, who returns home for the first time in ten years to do a contract hit and face his reunion. (And you thought going back and explaining your watching-the-paint-evaporate-job would be tough.) The story gets more interesting as Blank tries to reconcile with the girlfriend he stood up on prom night, played by Minnie (Circle of Friends) Driver, while either avoiding, outsmarting, and/or eliminating various government agents and rival hit men out to get him. Dan Aykroyd deserves a mention for his supporting role as a slimy hit man bent on setting up Cusack for the Feds.
The film in no way glamorizes or glosses over the brutality of Cusack’s character or his profession. It goes deeper than most films by offering explanations as to how and why he became what he is. (One could conclude that banal suburban life can drive someone to do anything.) Many films portray hit men as one-dimensional, cold-blooded killing machines that feel no remorse, but Grosse Pointe Blank shows the human side of its antihero. The humorous psychotherapy sessions between Blank and an extremely unwilling shrink (Alan Arkin) reveal the issues tugging at his conflicted soul. His disdain for the more psychotic members of his vocation and unwillingness to do a hit on a Greenpeace ship show that he’s human and may quite possibly be the world’s first environment-friendly killer.
Above all, Blank’s undying love for the girl he left ten years ago makes it easy to overlook the um, ahh… professional killer thing, and cheer for him through their tumultuous and funny journey to partial forgiveness and cautious reconciliation. The plausibility of this part of the story makes the film. Persuading an audience to buy into a spurned woman falling for a wayward lover (and a hit man, no less) after a decade is difficult, but Cusack and Driver pull it off. Driver has the tougher job, and her success lifts the film into credibility. She portrays a woman who loves and loathes the same man. These conflicting emotions enable her character to let Blank back into her heart while making him pay for it every step of the way. She achieves a wonderful balancing act between simultaneous disgust and affection that would cause most actresses to fall.
Various shoot-outs, explosions, and humorous gangster confrontations between Aykroyd and Cusack keep the pace fast and save the film from falling into predictable reunion flick formula or introspective darkness. The soundtrack is exceptional and features tracks by the Clash, the Cure, Violent Femmes, the Specials and possibly reggae greats Toots and the Maytalls. The specifics couldn’t be checked for sure because both HMV and Tower Records stores in the Boston area were sold out as of this writing. Pretty damn good for a movie about a hit man and a high school reunion.
