Culture | Back Story

A new “Mr & Mrs Smith” is about more than action, money and sex

In the TV version, the assassins’ mission is to make you think about marriage

Donald Glover and Maya Erskine in a scene from Mr. and Mrs. Smith 2024.
Photograph: David Lee/Prime Video

IF YOU remember “Mr & Mrs Smith”, a romantic-comedy spy caper of 2005, it may not be for its shrewd analysis of matrimony. The film starred Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as husband-and-wife assassins; their on-set attraction helped assassinate Mr Pitt’s marriage to Jennifer Aniston and inaugurate the cult of “Brangelina”. Yet beneath the stunts and perfect hair bubbled deeper emotional questions. A new TV version of the story amplifies and adds to them—casting light on changing times and contrasting artistic ambitions.

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This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Shots from a marriage”

From the February 3rd 2024 edition

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