DALLAS, Jun 12, 2005/ FW/ --- Amidst the tabloid coverage of the ‘SUPPOSEDLY’ off-screen romance between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ opened nationwide last Friday packing movie theaters all over the nation for two hours of hilarity and action.

Starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as John and Jane Smith, ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ is the story of two top assassins working for different agencies who just happened to be married to each other.

As the premise of the story goes, the couple did not know what each other does for a living, i.e., both have ‘covers’ as respectable business owners. They look like a normal suburban couple who offices in Manhattan but lives outside the city.

The story begins with John and Jane Smith seeking marriage counseling to save their marriage. Acting like other couples who are having problems, they tell the counselor the intimate details of their life. In a separate session, Jane Smith confides that she keeps ‘little secrets’ from John.

‘But all of us have little secrets,’ she rationalizes. Then she adds, ‘It seems that there is an empty space between us that get filled with things that are left unsaid. What do you call that?’

The counselor dutifully answers, “It’s called marriage.” And that was when the audience started laughing and never stopped until the end, amidst all the gunfights, lovers' spats and assassination attempts.

Though chances are this movie will not win any Academy Awards like Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt in ‘As Good As It Gets,’ Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie did more than a credible job of portraying a couple who are in love with each other, but has to keep on telling white lies in their effort to keep their true identities secret from each other and the misguided notion of ‘protecting his or her partner.’

The dialogue ‘looks and sounds’ normal for a couple that had been married for sometime, in Mr. & Mrs. Smith’s case, they have been together for five or six years. The subtleties of the dialogue might be lost to those who had never been in a long relationship, but very obvious to those who are married, been married or has experienced being the other half of a couple.

The seeming ‘normality’ of Jane & John Smith is what makes the movie so hilarious. Their conversations such as ‘How was your day?’ and their answers seem so harmless, yet they manage to tell the truth without saying what they really did in the ‘office.’

This reviewer saw the movie twice for the sake of research – during the opening night wherein a lot of the younger audience watched the movie and the matinee the next day wherein an older crowd was watching.

Several things became obvious. The star power of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie is more than incredible. Never mind what the tabloid says. The younger male audience wants to see Angelina Jolie while the younger female audience wants to see Brad Pitt.

Among the older crowd, the males did not seem to mind Angelina Jolie, but the women whose ages ranged from their thirties to octogenarians are so enamored with Brad Pitt.

“I just like the way he looks and he looks so clean cut,’ commented a woman in her 70s while on line for the pop corn and drinks to her husband.

“I know Brad Pitt, but I don’t know the girl,” answered the husband.

Chances are this older couple does not even know what the tabloids are saying. But they were willing to spend their Saturday afternoon at the movies just to see Brad Pitt.

The opening night, the movie theater was packed, while on the Saturday matinee, it was about 90% full.

Though this is not a scientific observation, ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ is destined to be one of the blockbuster movies of the summer.