Great Character: Martin Q. Blank (“Gross Pointe Blank”)

Take a hit man going through an existential crisis. Put him under pressure by sending some overzealous FBI agents after him. And an assassin. Oh, yeah, and another hit man who wants to joint the “Assassin’s Union.” Send them all off to the original hit man’s high school reunion and you have the makings for a wonderful, fun, and offbeat comedy Gross Pointe Blank (1997), screenplay by Tom Jankiewicz and D.V. DeVincentis & Steve Pink & John Cusack, story by Tom Jankiewicz. Here is the Protagonist Martin Q. Blank (John Cusack), the hit man wracked by doubts about whether he has it in him anymore to whack people:

Here is Marty meeting with his psychiatrist (Alan Arkin) debating whether to go to his reunion or not:

And here is Marty back at his high school, checking out his locker, then getting into a bit of an altercation:

Marty has some great dialogue in the movie. A few examples:

[practicing in a mirror before his high school reunion]
Marty: Hi. I’m, uh, I’m a pet psychiatrist. I sell couch insurance. Mm-hmm, and I — and I test-market positive thinking. I lead a weekend men’s group, we specialize in ritual killings. Yeah, you look great! God, yeah! Hi, how are you? Hi, how are you? Hi, I’m Martin Blank, you remember me? I’m not married, I don’t have any kids, but I’d blow your head off if someone paid me enough.

Marty: I was sitting there alone on prom night, in a goddamn rented tuxedo, and my whole life flashed before my eyes. And I realized finally, and for the first time, that I wanted to kill somebody. So I figured since I loved you so much, it’d be a good idea if I didn’t see you anymore.

We hear a car pulling in.

Marty: They’re right behind us. So I was in the Gulf last year, I was doing this thing anyway. And I came up over this dune, and I saw the ocean… and it was on fire. The whole thing, on fire, and it was beautiful. So I just sat there and watched it, and that’s when I realized there might be a meaning to life, you know, like an organic power that connects all living things, God, Yahweh, I dunno.

Marty shoots two rounds through the door, taking out the thug behind it.

Marty: [after shooting a guy three times and bashing his head in with a skillet] Debi, I’m in love with you! And I know we can make this relationship work.

In movies, Protagonists almost always start off in a state of Disunity, some fundamental disconnect between who they are in their conscious External world and who they need to be represented by an unexpressed need in their Internal world. Marty is an assassin. He doesn’t want to be anymore. There you are: A Protagonist in Disunity. Everything that happens in the story is part of a psychological journey for Marty’s character to evolve from one state to another.

Consider his last name: Blank. What levels of meaning might that have for this character? That at this moment in time, his psyche is a blank slate, he is willing to become whatever it is he can become? That he wishes to start off life with a blank check, wipe away the past and start over with a blank slate? That as an assassin, his reluctance to kill anybody anymore turns his bullets into blanks?

However we may interpret Martin Q. Blank, one thing is for certain: He is a great character.

Any Gross Pointe Blank fans out there?

[Originally posted August 5, 2011]