Script2Screen

Rating:
That’s right. This screenplay gets a perfect score. The movie won’t appeal to everyone, but screenwriters Bob DeRosa and Ted Griffin succeed in what they’re trying to do.

If you haven’t seen the advertisements, the movie is about a married couple that goes through a rough patch when the husband’s spy past catches up to him. It’s a comedy with a lot of relationship humor. As much I personally can’t stand Ashton Kutcher, the script is genuinely funny and has me interested in seeing the finished film.

The story begins with a Jen (Katherine Heigl) and Spencer (Kutcher) meeting in France and falling in love. She’s getting over a break-up and he’s on assignment tracking a would-be Bond villain. The exact nature of the villain’s crime isn’t really mentioned and isn’t important. The mission mostly serves as an obstacle Spencer must overcome to make it to his date with Jen. They hit it off and there’s a couple “Meet the Parents” moments as Spencer is introduced to Jen’s over-protective father.

Three years later, Jen and Spencer are married and living successful lives in suburbia. Spencer enjoys the profound normalcy of his life. He has normal neighbors, a normal job as an architect, and a stereotypical normal discomfort around his in-laws. No one is shooting at him and he, consequently, doesn’t have to shoot at anyone else. Everything is perfect until an unknown enemy activates a small army of sleeper agents and puts a twenty million dollar bounty on Spencer’s head.

The rest of the story revolves around Jen and Spencer’s attempts to stay ahead of all the assassins coming out of the woodwork. No one can be trusted and unassuming neighbors, coworkers, and strangers become potential enemies. Meanwhile, Jen has difficulty coming to terms with Spencer’s lies about his past. This was the funniest aspect of the script because it isn’t simply one scene of her freaking out. Spencer gets himself deeper into marital trouble as the extent his lies is gradually revealed. Jen is at wit’s end as Spencer reveals one hidden weapon cache after another, ranging from the seat of their car to his office to the fact that he built their house to be a fortress and armory. It’s really the joke that keeps on giving.

There are other humorous parts of the script, including Jen’s attempts at combat, but the story hits a crescendo in its climax as the avalanche of lies finally makes Jen snap. Without giving too much away, Jen literally dictates how this whole assassin war is going to end for both sides. The moment is both funny and representative of her character’s growth. The mystery of who hired the assassins is solved in the final stand-off and provides a fun twist. It truly is difficult to find anything to criticize in this script.  If you take it for the lighthearted comedy it is, “Killers” is practically perfect.

Unlike “Prince of Persia”, advertisements indicate “Killers” changed very little from the draft I have to the finished film. Almost every trailer moment is recognizably from the screenplay. “Killers” is rated PG-13 and opens this Friday, June 4.