School reunion

I went to my 25-year school reunion earlier this year and had a very pleasant evening visiting the scenes of old crimes and ambling around the beautiful grounds of my alma mater with two dear friends. That evening was a far cry from my 10 year reunion which a colleague aptly described as a “Willy War.” Much of the brashness, competitiveness and look-how-well-I’m-doing behaviour of the 10-year evening had been subsumed into a far more mellow, somewhat middle-aged mindset and conduct at the 25.

I was sharply reminded of the 10-year evening again a few nights ago when one of my all-time favourite films, Grosse Pointe Blank, was on the TV. It tells the story of a freelance hitman who bizarrely ends up in his old home town for a job on the same weekend as his 10-year high school reunion. John Cusack stars as Martin Blank, the hitman-in-crisis, and the film boasts a superb supporting cast. The dialogue is crackling and the humour is unapologetically black. My kind of movie. Some highlight moments:

Martin talking to his secretary, who is trying to persuade him to go to his reunion:

Don't tease me Marcella, you know what I do for a living ... Did you go to yours?
Marcella: Yes, I did. It was just as if everyone had ... swelled.

Martin rehearsing his lines for meeting people at the reunion in the mirror:

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 specialise 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, and I'd blow your head off if someone paid me enough.

Martin decides that the strain of making up lies about his profession is too much, so he starts telling his old friends the truth, in a somewhat joking way. Their reactions are just great:

Martin: I freaked out, joined the army, went into business for myself, I'm a professional killer.
Paul: Do you have to do postgraduate work for that - or can you jump right in?
...
Debi: So what have you been doing with your life?
Martin: Professional killer.
Debi: Ooh - do you get dental with that?
...
Mr. Newberry: So what have you been doing with your life?
Martin: Uh ... professional killer.
Mr. Newberry: Oh! Good for you! It's a ... growth industry.

Martin in conversation with his old girlfriend:

Debi (laughing): You're a goddamn psycho.
Martin: Don't rush to judgment on something like that until all the facts are in.
Much later – Debi (in horror): You're a psychopath!
Martin: No, no, no. Psychopaths kill for no reason. I kill for money. It's a job ... (as she flees the room) That didn't come out right.

In conversation with an old school friend who’s now an attorney:

Ken: I do divorce mainly, some property, some personal injury.
Martin: They all seem kinda related.

And my favourite moment; Martin talking to his psychiatrist about going to the reunion:

They all have husbands and wives and children and houses and dogs, and, you know, they've all made themselves a part of something and they can talk about what they do. What am I gonna say? "I killed the president of Paraguay with a fork. How've you been?"