The Moon on a Stick (Grosse Point Blank (DVD))

Member Name: andrewl

Product:	Grosse Point Blank (DVD)
Date:	11/06/04 (80 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great performances, dialogue, soundtrack

Disadvantages: Nothing. It owns you

I've often been in the strange position of praising films (Vanilla Sky, Ocean's 11) for their coolness (in terms of actors, soundtracks, etc) while criticising them utterly for failing to deliver on sophistication.

Grosse Pointe Blank trumps all more recent luvvie-fests by being cooler than Father Christmas's garden shed, while still managing to be an amazingly brilliant piece of cinema.

The plot concerns Martin Blank (John Cusack), a professional killer returning to the high school from which he disappeared ten years previously. He's going back to terminate someone, but as soon as he gets home he's more interested in making up with the girl (Minnie Driver) he abandoned and wandering around with his old mates.

His holiday is interrupted by several other assassins, all looking to kill him for some reason. A French killer with an alarmingly plastic-looking face is on a revenge contract after Blank accidentally killed a billionaire's dog. Two government assassins have been tipped off that Blank is carrying out a contract, and are there to stop him. They have been tipped off by Dan Ackroyd's portly elder statesman killer, who wants to force Martin to join an Assassin's Guild (I think the writers must have been playing too much Dungeons and Dragons).

So much for the plot.

The brilliance of the film rests heavily on John Cusack's central performance. Clearly a deeply troubled man, Blank hides behind a mask of professionalism, which happens to include looking cool in black suits. The main theme is revealed quite early on in an exchange with his shrink. Asking Martin whether his feelings of anxiety are caused by the guilt of killing for a living, Martin replies:

'I told you, I don't care about that stuff.'
'What stuff?'
'Morality. Mainly because I don't think what someone does for a living defines who they are.'

The scene is bri
lliant for many reasons if you watch it closely. On the surface there's the edgy comedy of an assassin visiting a clearly terrified psychiatrist (I haven't seen Analyse This, but I'm guessing it's not as good). Beneath that there's the realisation that the psychiatrist is actually clearly doing a very good job in spite of himself, his 'What stuff' question in particular prompting a very clear insight into Martin's mind. And, at bottom, there's Martin's reply - a theory about identity in which it's clear he has to believe in order to be able to function, but which, for Martin Blank, is clearly flawed.

Martin is a professional killer, and he is defined by it. The dramatic irony of (unsuspecting) people threatening to call security and him telling them calmly that it's not a good idea is offset by the viewer's realisation that he can't escape his 'profession'. When quizzed on the radio by his former girlfriend, Martin can't sit with his back to the door. Despite apparently believing that he is not summed up by his job, he can never talk about anything else that he has done in the last ten years, except the occasional reference to a cat. When an old friend approaches too quickly at a party, he almost kills him on reflex. These reflexes and instincts betray Martin's Blankness (a bit of an obvious name, perhaps, but we can forgive that). Jokes about wishing he'd brought a gun to a high school reunion gain extra weight when you realise he actually means it.

Eventually, Martin appears to realise how limited he is. As he prepares for the high school reunion, he cocks his gun in the mirror: 'This is me breathing'.

And, when things go spectacularly, kick-boxing, pen-stabbingly wrong and Debbie confronts him about his profession, it becomes clear that there's a massive amount that Martin feels he has to explain and justify. Cynical social theories, glib generali
sations, protestations of sanity and declarations of love all pour from his mouth with an intensity that only the unnerving Cusack could really pull off without just being terrifying. He finally has the chance to explain the last ten years of his life, and he can't do it.

Cusack's brilliant performance lies in his juxtaposition of ruthless cool with wide-eyed vulnerability, with the occasional detour into wide-eyed mania. Nowhere is this more clear than when he visits his mother in a mental insitution (a very poignant little scene) before marching to his father's grave and cooly pouring a bottle of spirits over it. At all times, he is an utterly believable character.

The soundtrack is awesomely cool. While Vanilla Sky went for very consciously cool alternative anthems, Grosse Pointe Blank tends to opt for the songs that you know own you. The Guns n' Roses cover of Live and Let Die blasts into action as Martin marches into the remains of his childhood home, only to be replaced by a gentle muzak version when he enters, suddenly aware that there's very little he can actually do about it.

The soundtrack was apparently supervised by Lord Joe Strummer of The Clash fame. Unsurprisingly, there's a few of his songs knocking around and a Clash poster tucked away in Debbie's room. There's a very 80s feel to the music (echoing the ten year reunion that dominates the plot), while managing to pick out those few decent songs from that cursed decade. And, to top things off, even the Eels get a brief spot of background music in a bar.

The violence will probably be a turn-off for some readers. Obviously in a film about trained killers, the gloves are going to come off at some point. While the slapstick gunplay and microwave bomb of one early scene are highly stylised (a standee display for Pulp Fiction gets wittily blown away), later violent scenes are quite clever. Yes, they're exceedingly explicit as assass
ins kick the living daylights out of each other, but they also serve as a crucial ingredient in a film that portrays killers as they like to think of themselves: cool, poised machines. The violent scenes show a very different reality. When Debbie comes across Martin after he's killed a man, she doesn't see a ruthless professional, rather a man covered in blood, looking exhausted and desperate. Martin is a consumate professional, except when actually carrying out his profession, which seems to drain him of all energy. It really is fascinating.

But all the killing is only half the story. The other plot of young love renewed is hugely touchy-feely, and would get laughed out of court in any other film, a real sweetener to aid digestion of the bitter themes of assassination and identity. The film-makers reveal their literacy as Debbie accuses of Martin of being a psycho. Martin replies:

'Don't rush to judgement on something like that until all the facts are in.'

This is of course a quote from Dr Strangelove. I feel there are more quotes present in the film, but that's certainly the most blatant.

This film is very nearly flawless. Minnie Driver isn't my favourite actress, but she gives an excellent performance. Dan Ackroyd manages a brief escape from playing people's fathers to really let rip in a full-blooded comic performance. Joan Cusack is almost as scary as her brother as Blank's volatile receptionist. One of the best films EVER.

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