Grosse Pointe Blank

Professional ratings
Review scores
Allmusic	Vol. 1; Vol. 2

Grosse Pointe Blank
Soundtrack album by various artists
Released	March 13, 1997 (Volume 1); October 7, 1997 (Volume 2)
Genre	Rock, new wave, punk rock, post-punk, ska
Label	PolyGram

Grosse Pointe Blank
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	George Armitage
Produced by	<templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/> Susan Arnold; Donna Arkoff Roth; Roger Birnbaum;
Screenplay by	<templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/> Tom Jankiewicz; D. V. DeVincentis; Steve Pink; John Cusack;
Story by	Tom Jankiewicz
Starring	<templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/> John Cusack; Minnie Driver; Alan Arkin; Dan Aykroyd;
Music by	Joe Strummer
Cinematography	Jamie Anderson
Edited by	Brian Berdan
Production; company	Hollywood Pictures; Caravan Pictures; Roger Birnbaum Productions; New Crime Productions
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures
Release dates	<templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/> April 11, 1997; ; ; ; ;
Running time	107 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15 million
Box office	$31,070,412

Grosse Pointe Blank is a 1997 American black comedy crime film directed by George Armitage and starring John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Alan Arkin and Dan Aykroyd. Cusack plays an assassin who returns to his hometown to attend a high school reunion. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $31 million.

Plot

As professional assassin Martin Blank prepares for a job, his assistant, Marcella, informs him that he has received an invitation to his ten-year high school reunion. While Martin is able to kill his intended target, a rival assassin named Grocer arrives and kills Martin's principal, effectively ruining the contract. After the job, Grocer approaches him apologetically about the incident, pointing out that the market for contractors is now flooded, and that mishaps like this will become commonplace without some organization; having worked together before, Grocer offers Martin a chance to join his fledgling union, which Martin refuses, preferring to work alone. Martin proceeds to his next job, which goes badly when the target wakes up in the middle of the assassination attempt and Martin shoots him instead, even though the assignment was to make it appear the target died of natural causes. His client demands that he make amends by killing a Federal witness in Detroit, Michigan, close to his hometown of Grosse Pointe, where the reunion is taking place. He is persuaded into going by both his reluctant therapist, Dr. Oatman, and Marcella, who believes that it is more than a synchronicity, it may be "the will of the gods". Disillusioned with work and knowing that refusal will lead to reprisal, Martin reluctantly agrees to go.

In Grosse Pointe, Martin reconnects with his childhood friend Paul and high school sweetheart Debi Newberry, now a radio DJ, whom Martin had abandoned on prom night to enlist in the Army. He freely admits to his former classmates that he is a professional assassin, but everyone assumes he is joking. He also visits his mentally ill mother in a retirement home and his father's grave. Meanwhile, Martin's clients cancel their contract with Grocer, whom they originally hired before forcing Martin into it. Grocer, believing that Martin stole the contract, provides information to government agents on Martin's whereabouts in retaliation.

While he reacquaints himself with the town and his old friends, Martin is stalked by Felix LaPoubelle, another hitman, who attempts to kill Martin in a convenience store built on the site of his childhood home. He is also followed by two National Security Agency agents who were tipped off to Martin's contract by Grocer. Despite these dangers, Martin remains distracted by his desire to reconcile with Debi and repeatedly procrastinates in opening the dossier on his target. In a tense but cordial meeting with Martin, Grocer reveals that LaPoubelle was hired by a wealthy dog owner whose prize retriever was killed on one of Martin's previous assignments involving dynamite fishing; while appreciative of Grocer's tip, Martin reveals that he knows Grocer put the agents on his trail and again refuses to join the union.

Debi is conflicted about her feelings for Martin, as they share an intense attraction to each other, but he manages to persuade her to attend the reunion with him. Picking her up for the event, he says hello to her father, Bart, to whom he (again) admits to being a professional assassin. Bart jokingly compliments him on joining a "growth industry," and seems willing to put the past behind them. At the reunion, Martin and Debi rekindle their relationship as they mingle with their former classmates, dance together intimately, and later sneak off to the empty nurse's office to have sex. While going to visit his old locker, Martin runs into LaPoubelle, whom he kills in self-defense. Debi stumbles upon the scene as Martin is stooped over LaPoubelle's corpse, and flees the reunion in shock and horror. Paul arrives moments later and helps Martin dispose of LaPoubelle's body in the school furnace.

Debi later confronts Martin in his hotel room, still reeling from the revelation that he was telling the truth about his profession all along. He reveals that when he joined the Army, his psychological profile indicated a certain degree of "moral flexibility" that prompted the Central Intelligence Agency to recruit him as an assassin, after which he decided to freelance. Martin attempts to assuage Debi by assuring her that he only accepts contracts on corrupt individuals saying, "If I show up at your door, chances are you've done something to put me there." His efforts to rationalize his work further anger Debi, and she rejects his attempts at reconciliation and walks out.

Debi's rejection leads Martin to an emotional breakthrough, and he abruptly decides to retire from being a contract killer. He fires Oatman over the phone, lays off Marcella with a very generous severance package and orders her to incinerate their office, and finally opens the dossier detailing the contract that brought him to Grosse Pointe. He is surprised to find that the target is Debi's father, Bart, who is scheduled to testify against Martin's client.

Accompanied by several other assassins, Grocer decides to kill Bart himself to impress Martin's client and eliminate Martin as a competitor. Martin abandons the contract and rescues Bart, driving him to the Newberry house and holing up inside. Grocer, his cohorts, and the NSA agents descend on the house. During the siege, Martin finally admits to Debi that he left her on prom night to protect her from his homicidal urges, which were due to his troubled upbringing and nihilistic worldview; however, having fallen in love with Debi again, he confesses that he has developed a newfound respect for life. Martin methodically picks off Grocer's henchmen, and the NSA agents are gunned down by both Grocer and Martin. Martin then kills Grocer by smashing a television over his head. Injured and winded, Martin proposes marriage to Debi, who is too stunned and despondent by the killing spree to respond, though Debi's father quips, "You have my blessing."

Debi and Martin leave Grosse Pointe together, with Martin visibly cheerful, and Debi confessing on her pre-recorded radio show that she's decided to give love another chance.

Cast

John Cusack as Martin Q. Blank
Minnie Driver as Debi Newberry
Alan Arkin as Dr. Oatman
Dan Aykroyd as Grocer
Joan Cusack as Marcella
Jeremy Piven as Paul Spericki
Hank Azaria as Steven Lardner
Barbara Harris as Mary Blank
Mitchell Ryan as Bart Newberry
K. Todd Freeman as Kenneth McCullers
Michael Cudlitz as Bob Destepello
Benny Urquidez as Felix LaPoubelle
Carlos Jacott as Ken
Jenna Elfman as Tanya
Steve Pink as Terry Rostand
Brent Armitage as Cosmo
Ann Cusack as Amy
Belita Moreno as Mrs. Kinetta
K.K. Dodds as Tracy
Bill Cusack as waiter

Production

Screenwriter Tom Jankiewicz wrote the initial script for Grosse Pointe Blank in 1991 after receiving an invitation to his 10th high school reunion.^[2] He picked the title while substitute teaching for an English class at Upland High School, writing the title on the classroom's whiteboard to see how it would look on a movie-theater marquee.^[2] Jankiewicz decided to use Grosse Pointe, an upscale suburb of Detroit, Michigan, rather than his working-class hometown of Sterling Heights, Michigan, due to the contrast between the two towns. There is also the wordplay ("point blank"), which is a ballistics term of reference to the distance a bullet travels before dropping from the firearm's bore axis.^[2]

Jankiewicz simultaneously worked as a substitute teacher and a cashier at a Big Lots in Upland, California, to make ends meet before his script was picked up for production.^[2]

Jankiewicz, who was raised in Sterling Heights, based several of the film's characters on his real-life friends from Bishop Foley Catholic High School in Madison Heights, Michigan.^[3] For example, Jeremy Piven's character, Paul Spericki, was originally named after Jankiewicz's best friend during high school, although the name was changed during filming.^[3] The film's script was based on an urban legend about a student who became a professional hitman.^[3] Joan Cusack's character, Marcella, was named for Jankiewicz's manager at Big Lots.^[2]

George Armitage later claimed, "I did as much as anyone did in terms of writing", but did not seek credit.

The script, when I met with John [Cusack] and the writers, was 132 pages. I said: "Look, I'm not doing anything over 100 pages." They said, "Okay," and they did a rewrite, and it came back 150 pages. So I said "Okay, you guys are fired," and I spent most of preproduction rewriting the screenplay, getting it down to 102 pages. Then we would improvise, and I noticed that some of the stuff I'd cut out was in the improvs, they were bringing back stuff that I'd cut out, but we had a good time with it.^[4]

Only the aerial footage of Lakeshore Drive was actually shot in Grosse Pointe.^[3] The city of Grosse Pointe Farms did not allow the filmmakers to use any shots of Grosse Pointe South High School for the movie due to the presence of alcohol in the reunion scenes. The majority of the film was shot in Monrovia, California.^[3] In a 1997 interview, actor John Cusack, who shares the film's screenwriting credit along with Jankiewicz, Steve Pink, and D.V. DeVincentis, said he would have liked to film on location in Grosse Pointe, but they were unable to move production to Michigan due to budget constraints.^[3]

The scene where Martin is attacked by LaPoubelle while exploring the halls of his old high school was filmed at Reseda High School in the San Fernando Valley.

Armitage later recalled:

With Grosse Pointe Blank I shot three movies simultaneously. We shot the script as written, we shot a mildly understated version, and we shot a completely over-the-top version, which usually was what was used. We cast that movie—and I've cast most movies—by having the actors come in and read, then throwing the script out and saying: "Okay, let's improvise." That's what I was comfortable with. I say to the actors: "You are creating the character. This is written, these are the parameters, this is the outline. Now you take this, make it your own, and bring me, bring me, bring me."... I'm very fond of Grosse Pointe Blank because of that, the insanity of it was trying to keep things working with three different registers to choose from.^[4]

Armitage says he shot several endings:

I'm usually rather rough on studio heads in terms of creative help, but after seeing the audience so angry at Alec Baldwin dying in Miami Blues, I decided that on Grosse Pointe Blank, this time, dealing with another psychopath, another sociopath, John's character—I just wanted him to survive, and we shot so many different endings. They were so generous at Disney, we had Michael Ovitz and Joe Roth running the place, they were really great with us. We shot two or three different endings, the two of them getting together, talking about things, and everything didn't work. And Joe Roth said at one of the screenings: "When the father says 'You've got my blessing' in the bathtub at the end, after the shoot-out, just cut to the two of them leaving." I thought, "Let's give it a shot," and it worked beautifully.^[4]

Reception

Critical response

Grosse Pointe Blank received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a rating of 80%, based on 70 reviews, with an average rating of 7.08/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "A high-concept high school reunion movie with an adroitly cast John Cusack and armed with a script of incisive wit."^[5] Metacritic gave the film a score of 76 out of 100, based on reviews from 27 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[6] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.^[7]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine wrote a positive review. Travers praises the writing as "smart, not smartass", praises director George Armitage for smashing action scenes that reveal character, furthermore he praises Aykroyd and the talented cast in smaller supporting roles. Ultimately he says the film "flies on Cusack’s seductive malevolence" calling him a marvel.^[8] Roger Ebert gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4. He praised the chemistry between the lead actors and enjoyed the dialogue, but considered it a near-miss, wishing for a wittier, more clever ending.^[9]

Box office

The film earned an estimated $6,870,397 in its opening weekend, ranking number four at the box office. It went on to earn $28,084,357 in the United States, and a total of $31,070,412 worldwide.^[1]^[10]

Soundtrack

The score for Grosse Pointe Blank was composed by Joe Strummer, formerly of The Clash, and the soundtrack includes two songs from The Clash: "Rudie Can't Fail" and their cover version of Willi Williams' "Armagideon Time".

In addition to The Clash, the tracks featured in the film are largely a mix of popular and alternative 1980s punk rock, ska, and new wave from such bands as Violent Femmes, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Specials, The Jam, Siouxsie and the Banshees and A-ha. While most songs played throughout the film (especially at the reunion) had been recorded by the time of the students' graduation in 1986, several songs were recorded later:

The Guns N' Roses version of Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die", heard in the scene where Martin first visits the Ultimart, was released in 1991.
Los Fabulosos Cadillacs' "Matador", heard during the dance scene at the reunion, was released in 1993.
The Specials' version of "Pressure Drop", played by Debi at the radio station during her "'80s weekend" was released in 1996.
Eels' "Your Lucky Day in Hell", heard when Martin and Debi visit the Hippo Club for drinks, was also released in 1996.

The soundtrack album reached number 31 on the Billboard 200 chart,^[11] prompting the release of a second volume of songs from the film.^[12]