The movie starts off with a generically named couple, John and Jane Smith, talking to a marriage counselor. From there, the viewers get a glimpse of their lives as mercenaries working for opposing groups, mixing humdrum domesticity with blood pumping danger and deceit.

In a bar in Bogota, Colombia, a woman named Jane walks into a bar (no, this is not a joke) as an army of police officers accosts individuals without a companion. As she breezes through the security, she meets up with John, and the two of them claim that they are together, to avoid any further involvement with the law enforcers. After this meeting, they wed and lived a seemingly boring life as husband and wife, until the fateful day that they discovered that each of them were actually spies working for opposing groups.

After engaging scenes of Mr. and Mrs. Smith trying to blow one another into, well, smithereens, they both realize that they were actually assigned on a single target by their respective groups, with the aim that they would eliminate one another. What follows is a conventional action movie narrative device of cat and mouse game, with the Smiths trying to elude forces from their camps out for their blood, while trying to discuss their marital woes during and in between fighting for their lives. Their final salvo against a number of the forces sent against them inside an abandoned shop is a scene worth seeing and nitpicking.

Brad and Angelina’s seething chemistry onscreen (and reportedly off screen) is a visual pleasure to behold. My love, my own Mrs. Smith with whom I saw the movie, even commented that the scenes were enough for Jennifer Aniston, Pitt’s erstwhile wife, to really be jealous of the silver screen couple. Sadly, it is only through visual appeal that the movie makes up for what it lacks in plot.

The movie has quite a number of plot holes, as there are bullet holes in the swath of destruction they leave in their wake fighting one another and their opposing camps. For one, I really can’t fathom how they were able to survive after fighting the armies sent by their camps. Sure they were represented in the movie as two of the best agents in the field (John has a kill rate of around 50 or 60, while Jane has killed 312!), but I really can’t believe that they beat quite a number of enemies armed to the teeth, equipped with the latest technology in weapons and night vision, during a night time attack in an abandoned, darkened shop, with only a handful of guns and rifles, wearing shades at that! Also, the viewers are left with the conundrum of how they were able to escape with their lives from the wrath of their agencies. Did the opposing groups just let them go scot-free after the couple decimated their forces during the attack? Definitely, an unhealthy excessive suspension of disbelief is required.

The movie ends with the Smiths having ironed out their marital troubles, sitting yet again in front of their counselor. Good for them. The viewers could certainly occupy their places on the counselor’s couch, to help them figure out how to resolve the movie’s dangling plot…