Grosse Pointe Blank
I was less than a year out of high school when “Grosse Pointe Blank” came out, but even then, there was something about Martin Blank (John Cusack) I identified with. I felt like an outsider, isolated off from much of the rest of my graduating class because of choices I made in my life. None of those choices included being a contract killer, but being one of the only people I knew who went to Georgia State, and then the decision to pursue music in the way I did, felt…unique, even among the people I was in band with who did pursue music. When my 10-year high school reunion hit in 2006, I had friends to go with, but didn’t feel like a part of the class, although I did start to get reacquainted with some. Now, 25 years later, the movie continues to connect with me, but in different ways, and not just because it remains wickedly entertaining.
The tone of this film, written by Cusack, Tom Jankiewicz, D.V. DeVincentis and Steve Pink, is as dictated by its musical choices as much as it is its fusion of romantic comedy by way of John Woo’s “The Killer.” The opening scene has Martin on the phone with his assistant (the fantastic Joan Cusack) as he’s preparing for a job, all with “I Can See Clearly Now” playing on the soundtrack. The choice is ironic at this point, because he has clarity in what his life is, but as things keep going progressively wrong with his hits, it’s clear that something is amiss. When an amends job for one of the botched ones takes place in Detroit, and coincides with his 10th high school reunion, it’s almost destined for him to reckon with his past. Not his profession as a contract killer- although that will come later- but how, on prom night, he abandoned his girlfriend Debbie (Minnie Driver) and disappeared.
This was one of two high school reunion comedies that came out in 1997, and utilized great ’80s soundtracks, and while “Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion” has seemed to have the stronger impact in the long run, “Grosse Pointe Blank” does a great job of tweaking the formula, while also making Martin’s journey home mean something. Take the sad reality of what happened to his childhood home. Logically, if he was sending money to his mom, he would have found out what happened to the house he grew up in, but the visual is so striking and darkly funny, and the way he tells it to his reluctant therapist (the great Alan Arkin) just hammers the point home. Now, it also feels like a comment on pop culture- albeit a bit early- and how it mines nostalgia for financial gain; the choice of Guns N’ Roses’s “Live and Let Die”- a cover of a classic song- to score the revelation doesn’t feel like an accident. Its destruction when Martin gets ambushed by an assassin looking to take him out for a past mistake is the perfect way to wrap up this part of the narrative- as clear a look at putting your past behind you as anything.
If Martin Blank was played by anyone other than John Cusack, this movie wouldn’t work. Cusack is probably one of my favorite male romantic leads ever- he’s not too handsome to where you don’t buy him as an everyman, and just charming enough to be a movie star. This and “High Fidelity”- which he also wrote- feel like him working through the legacy of his performances in “The Sure Thing” and “Say Anything,” and finding ways to deepen- and comment on- that romantic everyman character that may seem a bit offbeat, but give us something to chew over. Minnie Driver is the perfect actress for him to be opposite here; she’s smart and doesn’t just feel like a disposable romantic foil to be won. She has a life of her own, she has agency and she’s as sharp towards him as he deserves. When they finally have that romantic moment together at the reunion, it feels quite earned, and her disillusionment with him when she knows the truth of what he does is palpable. Earning that trust back to where they are together at the end feels probably a bit too manufactured, but we want to see them together, so we run with it.
“Grosse Pointe Blank” is one of those movies I just enjoy watching. Not just for Cusack and Driver, or the supporting cast that includes Dan Aykroyd as a fellow hitman trying to form a union; Arkin, Joan Cusack, Jeremy Piven, Hank Azaria and K. Todd Freeman as federal agents tailing Blank. There’s the soundtrack- which also includes Violent Femmes, Faith No More, The Clash, The Specials and Queen, the set pieces, the quiet moments of introspection, and the fact that, in the end, Martin Blank is always honest about who he is. It’s up to other people to listen to him. That doesn’t mean he isn’t above change, though, and his evolution is what makes this film a favorite of mine from the first time I saw it.
