Grosse Pointe Blank

Plot: A professional killer, Martin Q. Blank (John Cusack), goes to his high school reunion in the hopes of winning back his high school sweetheart, Debi Newberry (Minnie Driver), whom he stood up on prom night. At the same time, a fellow hitman, Grocer (Dan Aykroyd), and the government try to take Martin out.

Just in case you don't know, Grosse Pointe is the well to-do section of derelict Detroit.

Hilarious! As you may know, I think John Cusack is just about the best, and he does a tremendous job with Tom Janiewicz's sparkling script. He also does two other things I notice about many of his films: 1) his sister, Joan, is in it. She plays his secretary/receptionist/assistant. 2) Jeremy Piven plays his high school best friend and, I suspect, is his best friend in real life. They have amazing chemistry together. Also, if you subscribe to the idiom "a friend will help you move; a best friend will help you move a body", then Piven is worth his weight in gold.

To be honest, I don't think I've seen anything else directed by George Armitage. The Big Bounce, which either is out now or will be out soon, is his handiwork if you decide that you like him. It was very nicely done, I feel. He has a good sense of comedy. However, when I googled him, I saw he also directed something called Private Duty Nurses, so I do not recommend checking out his earlier work.

As with every John Cusack movie I have ever seen, it is lovely and well worth the rental fee. I say "lovely" because he does both drama and comedy, and he does them both very well. Now I have begun wondering about comedic actors who do comedy. Some of them get away with it, and some don't. I recall that in French we learned that an "acteur/actrice" was someone who could do a specific genre, but a "comedien/comedienne" was someone who could do any genre. So I tip my hat to John Cusack, a true comedien.

Last little note: the scenes Cusack shares with his therapist, played by Alan Arkin, are fabulous.