Grosse Pointe Blank

Martin Blank is a freelance hitman who starts to develop a conscience during the film. On the advice of his psychiatrist, Blank attends his High School reunion in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. He’s also contracted to kill someone there, but the woman he loves (who he has left without a word ten years ago) promises to be an even tougher target. At one point she asks: ‘Where are all the good men dead – in the heart or in the head?’ Grosse Pointe Blank works three ways: as an incisive satire on 90s corporate culture, a poignant romance of love lost and regained, and as a morality tale about American adolescence and the middle class. It also features a majestic lineup of mid-80s pop music (put together by Joe Strummer), a unique cast of side characters and easily the smartest dialogue in recent American comedy. (A.H.)