The Bottom Line: The More Denials, the Better for Brad and Angelina’s ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’

Let’s take Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at their word and assume they’re innocent until proven guilty of love.

So what does this mean for the troubled kiss-and-blow-up romantic thriller that–despite rampant rumor and speculation–will not yield the next Mr. and Mrs. Pitt?

Their constant denials can only ensure Mr. & Mrs. Smith won’t suffer the same disastrous fate that awaited such lovesick bombs as Gigli, Proof of Life and The Marrying Man.

It all comes down to the curiosity factor.

Audiences have heard time and again that the Tomb Raider never stole Pitt from Jennifer Aniston. So they will clamber to see whether sparks fly on-screen between Pitt and Jolie. And, if so, are they just acting? Or does Mr. & Mrs. Smith possess any tell-tell signs of a real-life mutual attraction? You know, the kind that breaks up marriages. Or, in this post-“Bennifer” world, inspires such a tired and desperate media-created one-word moniker as “Brangelina.” (Will we soon refer to Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes as “Tolmes”? )

	Brad Pitt’s Greatest Hits*
		1. Ocean’s Eleven  $183.4M
		2. Troy    $133.3M
		3. Ocean’s Twelve  $125.5M
		*Wide Releases Only

If you’re consumed with analyzing every last detail about the love lives of the rich and famous, Mr. & Mrs. Smith will make your head spin for days and days.

And this is what separates Pitt and Jolie from former lovebirds Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez.

No matter how many interviews they grant claiming they’re just good pals, Pitt and Jolie will never be in our faces the same way Affleck and Lopez were during the dizzying height of “Bennifer.”

	Brad Pitt’s Greatest Misses*
		1. Seven Years in Tibet  $37.9M
		2. The Devil’s Own    $42.8M
		3. Meet Joe Black  $44.6M
		*Wide Releases Only

Affleck and Lopez wore out their welcome long before the arrival of Gigli with their ceaseless public displays of affection. So why sit through a truly bad gangster farce to see Affleck and Lopez all lovey-dovey? Especially one that merely reinforced the notion that they were never meant for each other?

Not that what happened to Affleck and Lopez is uncommon.

Pairing a real-life Hollywood power couple–no matter whether they were romantically linked before, during or after shooting–usually spells doom for the film in question. It’s one thing to see them smooch on the red carpet or frolic on a beach during an exotic vacation getaway. We just don’t want to pay to see them pretend to fall in love. Hence the bombs that featured Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan, Sean Penn and Madonna, Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, and Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke. Tom Cruise endured his two biggest disappointments when he worked with then-wife Nicole Kidman.

	Angelina Jolie’s Greatest Hits*
		1. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider  $131.1M
		2. Gone in Sixty Seconds    $101.6M
		3. The Bone Collector  $66.5M
		*Wide Releases Only

Even Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor failed to ignite interest in Cleopatra, the no-expense-spared epic that made them Hollywood’s most famous and glamorous love mismatch.

Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger got hot and heavy on the rocky set of The Marrying Man. The mob farce’s failure didn’t deter the then-married couple from reuniting in The Getaway, only their explicit love scene proved too voyeuristic for audiences. (That said, Steve McQueen‘s fling with the very married Ali McGraw on the set of the original Getaway didn’t hurt the film.)

Meg Ryan was still married to Dennis Quaid when she reportedly fell into the arms of Russell Crowe during the filming of Proof of Life. The negative publicity prompted director Taylor Hackford to trim the couple’s love scene, even though they had split before Proof of Life opened to total apathy.

	Angelina Jolie’s Greatest Misses*
		1. Beyond Borders  $4.3M
		2. Original Sin    $16.5M
		3. Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life  $65.6M
		*Wide Releases Only

No doubt the Proof of Life fiasco is very much on the minds of everyone associated with Mr. & Mrs. Smith. After all, Ryan‘s career has been in freefall since the hostage drama flopped.

But Mr. & Mrs. Smith should win over it biggest skeptics thanks to what was once considered its greatest liability: Pitt and Jolie.

The sexual tension between the bickering married assassins is so intense that you can’t help but wonder whether the inevitable happened when the cameras stopped rolling for the day. Pitt and Jolie are so good together–especially when exchanging withering looks, insults and gunfire–that this True Lies-ish take on The War of the Roses will prove too fun and mischievous to ignore this summer.

The Bottom Line

“Everybody has secrets,” says Angelina Jolie before the bullets start to fly in Mr. & Mrs. Smith. And what-if any-secrets are Pitt and Jolie harboring? None or so they claim. And that just means inquisitive audiences will want to judge for themselves whether there’s more to this surprisingly enjoyable take on marital strife than meets the eye.