Grosse Point Blank is a nice little black comedy that manages to be engaging with its slick, compact storyline, as well as highly entertaining with its intelligent, darkly funny humour. The most laudable aspect of the script’s humour content is that it is laced with a fine dose of wry cynicism deftly masked by a seemingly playful exterior. The movie is about a gleefully nihilistic hitman (writer/actor John Cusack at his deadpan best) suffering from existential crisis, not because he kills people for money (it’s never ‘personal’ for him anyway), but because he is plain bored with his job. So, while on one hand he is coercing his nervous shrink (hilariously played by Alan Arkin) for psychiatric sessions, and on the other he is being coaxed by a delightfully neurotic fellow-hitman to join his ‘union’, he is secretly planning to quit while he is still alive when he reluctantly takes up an assignment at Grosse Point, which incidentally coincides with his high school reunion. Thus he must deal not only with his trigger-happy colleagues, but also with a curious bunch of former school mates, one of whom happens to be his high school sweetheart, and whose father happens to be, well, his ‘assignment’! The narrative progression, from its deceptively innocuous beginning to its uproarious climax, has been superbly paced, and has been very well aided by an excellent pop soundtrack.
Director: George Armitage
Genre: Comedy/Black Comedy/Romantic Comedy/Action
Language: English
Country: US
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