Interesting basis for a romantic comedy eh? I'm not at all sure what you call Grosse Pointe Blank to be honest and despite seemingly being marketed as such when it was released, 'romantic comedy' isn't the label I would have attached to it. For sure, there are elements/a central theme of romance here, but mostly it's packed with some very black humour, a few scenes which wouldn't be out of place in a Tarantino flick including one very violent, bloody murder with a ball point pen and umm, yeah it's 'different'! In some respects, the audacity of the screenplay works really well, in others it falls distinctly flat, but I think most people will be entertained by it's quirky nature if nothing else. The biting, acidic wit which laces the screenplay is often very well observed, the 'union' subplot makes some well aimed and delicious stabs at big business and the whole cringe-worthy one-upmanship of the whole High School reunion thing is sent up superbly.

Cusak plays Martin with a dangerous glint behind the Raybans, deliciously in touch with his dark side and exuding the kind of black charisma which is darkly alluring. Grosse Point Blank is as much about sin and redemption as anything else and Cusak plays Martin as a man who quite obviously on the surface begs for redemption and explains away his actions as 'only the really bad get killed', and yet the glint behind those Raybans, the crooked raise of an eyebrow, a almost invisibly curled lip, the faintest hint of pleasure in pain, betray his true inner revelry in sin. Martin has sold his soul and as much as he may want to leave it all behind, he loves the power and the thrill of the kill and is distinctly unimpressed by the slow lane taken by all his friends and buddies from school.

Speaking of good things...Dan Ackroyd, although sadly not given too much screen time, steals the show in the scenes he has. I'm not a huge fan of his despite him being great in The Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters and a few others, but here he has a wonderfully loopy character with such a ridiculous role in the movie you just have to love him. Alan Arkin too as Martin's enforced shrink is another great minor character and Joan Cusak as Marcella, Martin's secretary/personal assistant is equally entertaining in her minor role. Grosse Point Blank is cast well throughout, aside from the actual reunion itself which is amazingly inept, packed with D-grade soap opera actors and stereotypes and is amazingly numbskullish considering the movie in which those few scenes find themselves! Fortunately, not too much time is spent enduring this abysmal section of the movie.