GROSSE POINTE BLANK
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1997 Scott Renshaw
(Hollywood) Starring: John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Alan Arkin, Dan Aykroyd, Joan Cusack, Jeremy Piven. Screenplay: Tom Jankewicz and D. V. DeVincentis & Steve Pink and John Cusack. Producers: Susan Arnold, Donna Arkoff Roth and Roger Birnbaum. Director: George Armitage. MPAA Rating: R (profanity, violence, drug use) Running Time: 107 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
GROSSE POINTE BLANK has been bumped from Hollywood Pictures' release schedule a couple of times, but for once it appears that the delays had nothing to do with production over-runs or shabby quality. My guess is that the marketing people just kept asking for more time to figure out how in the world to sell this thing. When John Cusack is your biggest star, the director's previous film (MIAMI BLUES) was seen by next to no one seven years ago and the tone defies even its cute high-concept premise, you'd probably be stumped too. And no matter how they try to sell GROSSE POINTE BLANK, they won't do it justice. GROSSE POINTE BLANK is wildly unpredictable, wonderfully detailed and unapologetically intelligent, a comedy which takes the time to do the little things right and gets big laughs in the process.
Cusack plays Martin Blank, a killer-for-hire facing an existential crisis. Troubled by old regrets and doubts about his chosen profession, Martin decides to confront issues from his past by attending his 10-year high school reunion in the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, a trip which conveniently matches up with an "assignment" in the area. One piece of unfinished business involves Debi Newberry (Minnie Driver), the high school sweetheart Martin stood up on prom night ten years earlier and who still occupies his dreams, but the road to redemption and true love won't be an easy one. Two NSA agents (Hank Azaria and K. Todd Freeman) have been tipped off to Martin's presence in town, a rival assassin (Benny Urquidez) has been hired to kill Martin himself, and yet another rival, called Grocer (Dan Aykroyd) is taking Martin's refusal to join a proposed hit man's union _very_ personally.
John Cusack is one of four credited writers for a script which boasts one of the characteristics of the best screen comedies: every minor character is a fully-realized comic creation. The supporting cast features gifted performers like Alan Arkin (as the therapist whose fear of Martin renders him incapable of offering the slightest help) and Cusack's sister Joan (as Martin's intense but effective office manager/personal assistant) doing hilarious work, but their excellence isn't surprising. It is when you get big laughs out of bit parts like an oblivious convenience store clerk (Duffy Taylor) or an edgy but dim-witted neighborhood security cop (Michael Cudlitz) that you know you're dealing with writers who aren't content to get lazy once they get past the two or three lead characters. The exchanges between these characters are sharp and clever, rich with sometimes overlapping dialogue which actually requires the audience to pay attention. The punch lines never come quite when or how you expect them, taking deadly satirical aim at targets like organized labor, suburbia, assassin etiquette and that strange American ritual called the high school reunion.
At the relatively calm center of this colorful comic hurricane is John Cusack, who adds GROSSE POINTE BLANK to an impressive resume of smart projects like SAY ANYTHING, THE GRIFTERS, and BULLETS OVER BROADWAY. His self-deprecating wit and baby-faced, sad-eyed attractiveness make him an instantly sympathetic screen presence, and Cusack has to fight against his persona a bit to give Martin the killer instinct he requires. The script gradually reveals bits of Martin's history which explain how he became who he is, without sacrificing the comedy for an unnecessarily serious character study. It's a deft piece of acting by Cusack, who has an easy chemistry with Minnie Driver (in perhaps the least well-developed role) which convincingly evokes a sense of history and familiarity. As absurd as the situations get in GROSSE POINTE BLANK, the film never becomes a farce because Cusack plays Martin's quest for enlightenment as honest and honorable...even if he has to stab someone in the throat with a ball point pen along the way.
Oh, yes...GROSSE POINTE BLANK could catch you off guard if you are unfamiliar with the aforementioned MIAMI BLUES, director George Armitage's under-appreciated 1990 thriller which wasn't timid about mixing comedy, quirky characters and occasionally graphic violence. GROSSE POINT BLANK is a much better, much funnier film, but it does include moments of violence which are sometimes jarring in an otherwise playful film; Martin is a killer, and we see him at work as well as at play. Hollywood Pictures isn't doing much to warn the squeamish about those elements, preferring instead to emphasize the comedy and a Gen-X-nostalgic soundtrack heavy on 1980s punk and new wave tunes by The Jam, The Clash and others. A bit deceptive, perhaps, but for once I'm willing to forgive the marketing folks their trespasses if they get people into theaters to see GROSSE POINTE BLANK. Something this disarmingly unique needs all the creative salesmanship it can get.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 finer Pointes: 8.
Visit Scott Renshaw's MoviePage http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~srenshaw Subscribe to receive reviews directly via email See details on the MoviePage
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews