Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt teamed up for the first time on screen in 10 years for "By The Sea" but Hollywood's leading power couple on Friday got scathing early reviews for the movie, which some deemed a laborious vanity project.
"By the Sea" was written and directed by Jolie Pitt and inspired by the grief she experienced over the death in 2007 of her mother. It focuses on the stale marriage of former dancer Vanessa (played by Jolie Pitt) and her husband, blocked writer Roland (played by Pitt).
The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy called it "the kind of vanity project you don't see much of anymore." He wrote that it was a languid attempt at European arthouse cinema that "will prove once again that even the biggest names in the world won't draw an audience to something that, in and of itself, has no reason for being."
The more than two hour-long film, which opens in U.S. movie theaters on Nov. 13, reunites the two actors as a screen couple for the first time since the flirty 2005 action comedy "Mr.& Mrs. Smith", which brought them together in real life. ?Reuters