‘If I show up at your door, chances are you did something to bring me there...’
1997 was a big year for John Cusack. While everyone remembers Con Air (and rightly so), Grosse Pointe Blank is often overlooked, despite being one of Cusack’s finest performances. Unfairly criticised as a Tarantino knock off at the time, Grosse Pointe Blank has actually aged better than much of QT’s work and will go down as a 90s film that has absolutely stood the test of time…
Martin Blank (Cusack) is a contract killer who has become disillusioned with his job. His shrink (Alan Arkin) is terrified of him, his mentor (Dan Aykroyd) vacillates between trying to kill him and trying to recruit him to a newly formed assassins union and his impending ten year high school reunion has him pining for his first love Debi (Minnie Driver). What an utterly wonderful set up.
The protagonist returning to their home town for some kind of reunion is a set up we have seen many times before. It is the gun for hire element that makes George Armitage’s film so irresistable, however. Well, that and the performances. Everyone in this film is having a blast, not least Joan Cusack as Martin’s long suffering personal assistant and Aykroyd who is gleefully psychotic throughout. You really can’t miss though in terms of acting. Cusack and Driver make a great couple. You believe in their love and mutual affection from the very first moment their eyes meet across an intersection. It’s impossible not to be swept up by it all. This is not just a romance movie, however, not at all. Witness the shoot out at the convenience store and you will be presented with a set piece to rival any action movie of the era.
Grosse Pointe Blank has a cult following and was generally well received by critics but as a certified box office bomb, this is a film that absolutely deserves more recognition and a wider audience. One of the best films of the 90s.