Grosse Point Blank

Dark days require light relief, and Grosse Pointe Blank is a fun, engaging film to keep the spirits up as we walk together through the valley of death, or at least the potential wrecking ball the out-of-control virus is about to take to our communities. Meanwhile, in Hollywood….Martin Black (Cusack) is a troubled man, although even his shrink (Alan Arkin) isn’t too keen to engage with his neurosis. A dedicated hit-man, Blank falls out with his handler (Dan Aykroyd) before heading back to his suburban alma mater for his high school reunion.

Local DJ Debi (Driver) is still spinning her records at her main-street record shop, but she’s still smarting from being stood up on prom night. Can Martin Blank recover his mojo, win back his girlfriend, and survive a return to his high school, all the while fighting off various professional assassins? And what’s at stake here, really? Not much, other than whether Martin and Debi will get it together, but that’s the charm of Tom Jankiewicz’s script, loosely improvised by the cast.

Many 1990’s films are now rendered somewhat inconsequential by their reliance on fading star-power to deliver high-concept, low-gravity fare, but Grosse Pointe Blank catches most of the cast on an upswing, and leans into the irony that it’s a rom-com first and foremost and the killing-sprees are mainly there for decoration. It’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it, and George Armitage’s film is that peculiar kind of movie confection that’s more about wish fulfilment than dealing with anything real. In short, it’s an ideal scenario that you return to high school for a reunion, and you’ve got the coolest job by far, a warm and cozy fantasy vindicated by the cartoonish, almost bloodless approach to assassinations shown here. The Reagan years were just fading, and there was still a no-questions asked approach to what anyone did for a living; Blank cheerfully tells his fellow graduates that he’s a killer and no-one turns a hair. Judgement wasn’t a professional sport back in these days.

Cusack and Driver are at their most charming here, but the whole cast are on the same page. Actions have consequences in real life, but movies offer an escape from that, and Grosse Pointe Blank looks back on a happier time when you could launch into over a dozen murders and still get the girl and walk off into the sunset with a happy tune from one of several soundtrack albums.