High-school reunions can be deadly affairs, but not necessarily in the ways shown in “Grosse Pointe Blank.” This amusingly violent comedy, which star John Cusack co-wrote, is about what happens when a top-ranking international assassin decides to attend his old class’ 10th anniversary get-together in Grosse Pointe, Mich.
Like many of us, Cusack’s character — Martin Q. Blank, professional killer and Grosse Pointe alumnus — may think he can get away from his job for a few days. But his job keeps tracking him down — and then stabbing and shooting at him. Soon, car chases erupt in the middle of get-togethers, and flirtations are interspersed with gunfights.
Directed by George Armitage, an underrated specialist in smart, oddball action and crime movies (“Miami Blues,” “Vigilante Force”), “Grosse Pointe Blank” has a genuinely original tone. Briskly and neatly, it balances suspense, satire and sentiment, stitching it all together with a deadpan irony that bears co-writer-and-star Cusack’s unmistakable stamp. A mix of bloody high-tech violence and clever jibes at yuppie life, it’s a sleek shoot-’em-up that keeps laughing up its sleeve, a cool-hearted comedy with a valentine tucked under its shoulder holster.
Cusack co-wrote the screenplay with old Evanston pals D.V. DeVicentis and Steve Pink, along with original writer Tom Jankiewicz. And he’s dreamed up a killer part for himself: Martin Q. Blank, the highly paid hit man who suddenly decides to catch up on old times in Grosse Pointe, traditionally the suburb for Detroit’s auto industry elite and their kin.
At first, Martin — an ex-CIA employee who now free-lances around the world — seems a youthful version of a license-to-kill James Bond type, but without the wry self-kidding quality or joie de vivre. Like some ruthless corporate in-fighter, he’s a model worker with ice in his soul. In his late 20s, he’s achieved the top of his profession.
And he carries out his hits — even the two near-misfires we see at the film’s beginning — with the cool concentration of a pro who never misses a trick and can handle accidents and breakdowns with ease.
But Martin also has troubling personal and professional problems, including a murderously genial competitor named Grocer (Dan Aykroyd) who wants him to join the assassin’s union (or else), and a nervous psychoanalyst, Dr. Oatman (Alan Arkin), so terrified of their too-revealing sessions together that he points Martin toward the reunion (“But don’t kill anyone!”) just to get him out of his hair for a few days. (Instead, Martin keeps harassing him by cellular phone.)
Why Grosse Pointe? For years, Martin, who cut all ties with family and friends after the CIA recruited him (on the basis of a placement test!), has been obsessed with dreams of the girl he left behind: Debi Newberry, played by British actress Minnie Driver. Martin hasn’t seen or contacted Debi since he stood her up on senior prom night to run off and become a hit man. But, like many high-school crushes, she’s assumed almost mythic significance. The chance to meet Debi again inspires him, and he decides to catch the party while en route to another rub-out.
There are complications. In his absence, Martin’s family home has been replaced by an “Ultimart” convenience store. Old school buddies or enemies — including Michael Cudlitz in a funny turn as sentimental bully Bob Destepello — keep reacting in curious ways. The reunion itself is a typically drab, tacky neo-prom full of chirpy hosts. Debi, now the town’s leading radio talk-show deejay, is a tough cookie who’s still burned up by Martin’s unexplained sudden exit, and not shy about using the air waves to castigate him.
Martin’s hard-boiled secretary, Marcella (played by Cusack’s sister, Joan), is struggling to keep him abreast of all the appointments and murders on his calendar. And hot on his heels are the glad-handing, back-blasting Grocer and two more hit men, Lardner and McCullers (Hank Azaria and K. Todd Freeman), who’ve been hired to make sure this Blank is erased. (This hit duo’s probable namesakes, authors Ring and Carson, would hardly have approved.)
Though he had some great scenes with Dianne Wiest and Chazz Palminteri, John Cusack wasn’t completely comfortable as the Woody Allen substitute in “Bullets Over Broadway.” His highest gift isn’t for tics and twitching. But here, he slides into the role like a bullet clip into an automatic. Cusack’s smooth, boyish suburban face that registers such likable half-jaded intelligence also can bristle with the right kind of inner panic.
Here, Cusack arranges his own reunion party, calling back not only co-writers Pink and DeVincetis and sister Joan but also old pal Jeremy Piven (playing Martin’s old pal Paul Spericki) and assorted Cusacks and Evanstonians. The meaty supporting parts, though, go to Driver, who plays Debi with snap and fire, and Arkin and Aykroyd, who provide great support as the frightened Freudian and the grinning conglomerate killer.
The movie tends to keep us off balance. The big gunfights and action scenes are shot almost straight, but the romance and reunion scenes have the dry, nervous feel of an Albert Brooks comedy. Like the dark farces of the 1960s and early ’70s that it sometimes resembles, there’s a cheerfully irreverent tone and sleek mockery to this picture that makes it continually fun to watch.
“Pointe Blank” satirizes action movies, of course, including the one that probably inspired its title: John Boorman’s 1967 high-style, super-noir “Point Blank,” in which Lee Marvin plays a remorseless pro killer battling his way through a Southern California corporate gang world. But, more pointedly, the movie casts a cool sparkling eye on modern elite suburban cliques, at kids who have everything and still whine and get lost in neurotic fantasies, self-pity and hangups. (And also at the guilt-ridden successes like Martin, who’ve sold out to big corporations and sacrificed their humanity.)
That’s a milieu Cusack and his buddies obviously know well, and which they skewer with ease. The action movie backdrop, perfectly drawn and paced by Armitage and set right in the middle of one of America’s wealthiest suburbs, is a metaphor for all the cold contracts people may make to grab their chunk of the American Dream. And though “Pointe Blank” doesn’t always build right or go as far as it should — it either needs a different kind of “happy ending” or better groundwork to explain it — it’s still the kind of risky show business we don’t usually get from Hollywood or Buena Vista.
One of the movie’s running gags is that whenever anybody asks Martin what he does, he replies honestly that he’s a professional killer. Not only does nobody, not even razor-sharp Debi, believe him, but they all immediately fall into the “joke” and make deadpan queries about business. (Martin, of course, knows that’s how they’ll react.)
In suggesting that pro assassins can have mundane lives, romantic problems and high-school reunions to attend, “Grosse Pointe Blank” is covering the same kind of territory as that elephantine, if exciting, 1994 family man-killer thriller, “True Lies.” But this time, the joke stings.
”GROSSE POINTE BLANK”
(star) (star) (star) 1/2
Directed by George Armitage; written by Tom Jankiewicz, D.V. DeVincentis, Steve Pink, John Cusack; photographed by Jamie Anderson; edited by Brian Berdan; production designed by Stephen Altman; music by Joe Strummer; Music supervisor Kathy Nelson; produced by Susan Arnold, Donna Arkoff Roth, Roger Birnbaum. A Buena Vista release; opens Friday. Running time: 1:47. MPAA rating: R. Language, sensuality, nudity, violence.
THE CAST
Martin Q. Blank …………………….. John Cusack
Debi Newberry ………………………. Minnie Driver
Dr. Oatman …………………………. Alan Arkin
Grocer …………………………….. Dan Aykroyd
Marcella …………………………… Joan Cusack
Paul Spericki ………………………. Jeremy Piven
