This review was originally published at Green Lake Reflections, my first film review website.
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Grosse Point Blank is almost unclassifiable. Director George Armitage (Miami Blues) has cooked up what is bound to become a cult classic — but where will you shelve it in a video store? What is it? A gangster movie/romance hybrid? A nostalgia-trip comedy? A shoot-em-up/you-can’t-go-home-again morality play? Nope, none of those makeshift labels will serve. But unless you’re averse to some bone-rattling shoot-outs — for some, let’s face it, even comic violence is a “gross point” — there are a world of reasons to see this wonderful… uh… this movie.
First, Minnie Driver: Her ebullient performance in Circle of Friends made that sappy little movie actually worthwhile. Here, again, she’s fantastic — a refreshingly unconventional leading lady in that she isn’t likely to remind you of any other leading lady. She’s an original.
Second, John Cusack: He seems to have been biding his time since Say Anything, waiting for just the right movie to come along, one that his wry, idiosyncratic, endearing personality fits. He’s found it. This is the role he was born to play.
Third, a premise so clever that it’s a wonder we haven’t seen it before: As professional assassin Martin Blank (Cusack) heads home for a high school reunion, Hit Man Martin Blank (Cusack) wants to resurrect his romance with an old flame (Driver), the one he abandoned at the prom a decade ago. But he’s finding it difficult to come to terms with the creature he has become. Will Martin kick the killing habit in time to win the girl? Will he resist the temptation to join the “union” of professional killers? Has his hometown changed beyond all recognition? And what of his classmates? What have they done with their lives?
Fourth, it’s got two award-worthy supporting actor performances: one from Alan Arkin, playing Blank’s reluctant therapist who must prepare him to return home to his 10-year high school reunion; and another from Joan Cusack (John’s sister), playing Blank’s manager.
If there’s one role I might have cast differently, it’s Dan Aykroyd: he’s just not menacing enough to give the film the sense of real danger that it needed. I would love to have seen Nicholson or Pacino ham it up here; this is a movie that would have called for it.
Still, watching Martin’s moral dilemma is an entertaining, hilarious, satisfying two-hours that will hold up for second and third viewings. The high school reunion develops into such a nightmare, it might scare a whole generation away from their own reunions. The action, when it comes, is fast and furious, tinged with wisecracks that would make Tarantino cheer. Grosse Point Blank strikes a perfect balance between romance, comedy, and action, and yes, without ever being pretentious, it actually says something. As in John Woo’s Face/Off, the extreme violence is never taken too seriously, even though it is masterfully executed. And yes, while Martin may be disillusioned and lost, the film itself comes equipped with a more carefully calculated moral compass than most action films can boast.
And rumor has it… there might be a sequel coming. Bring it on.