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The ever likeable John Cusack in a story as original and whymsically brilliant as they come with a script as sharp as it is wickedly funny with humour darker than any of Martin Blank's suits.
It's not the sort of film you can really go around quoting despite an endless parade of some of the best dialogue in years (decades even), rather Grosse Pointe Blank is a feeling or effortless cool without the need for shedding bucket loads of blood or a cool as f**k soundtrack (although the OST is a perfect selection of some of the 80's finer moments).
Grosse Pointe Blank starts as it means to go on with a darkly funny botched assassination attempt, sabotaged by a paperboy on a bicycle only to be hijacked by a swollen Dan Akroyd (one of his finer performances in recent memory) all to the tune of I Can See Clearly Now the Rain has Gone. All through the opening scene Blank's assistant (played by sister Joan Cusack) egging Blank on to go back to his 10 year high school reunion. "I just find it amusing that you came from somewhere."
The level of quality dialogue and quick banter continues, culminating with a short monologue by Blank about his time in the Gulf War and the visual impact of an ocean on fire and lending itself to the theological brilliance of a broken man with a broken heart not having any direction to their life and being scared at the thought of turning up to their high school prom in a god dam rented tuxedo and deciding that for the first time in your life, you wanted to kill somebody. Blank is a beautifully complex character, painted subtely with the short notes to his past in the form of a care home ridden, Lithium addicted mother and an alcoholic father who had passed away some years before. The beauty, subtlety, simplicity and brilliance of Blank pouring a bottle of booze over his dead fathers grave saying more in 10 seconds than a lengthy 30 minute long back story could ever do.
The expression on Blank's face when he stares into the eyes of the baby he is holding at the reunion while Queen and David Bowie bellow out Under Pressure, is one of a re-awakening, again telling more stories in one expression than your average film can capture in 90 minutes.
Moments like these litter the film painting a picture of likeable but imperfect people, full of charm, mistakes, passion and failures.
The quality of the film is in the way in which every character is worthy of redemption. This is my favourite film of all time and one of those rare examples of something I could watch over and over again and never get bored of. Underrated, under the radar and in a way, that suits it perfectly. An unsung masterpiece.
This is currently (and has been for a number of years now) my favourite film of all time. It's no surprise that I rated the film 5 stars out of 5!
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